There is a trend subtly surfacing on social networks, a turn towards fundamentalism, that has resulted in the bullying of several young Muslim women from northern Kerala across social networks. Some admit privately to the threats they continue to receive, while few are openly protesting it.
Shereen Salam*, a 28-year old civil engineer based in Dubai recalls how when she put a picture of herself without her hijab as her profile picture on Facebook around two years ago, she started receiving messages demanding that she remove her photo.
“It provoked me and I started putting pictures in short skirts and thin strap tops. I even got death threats after that, they said they will kill me in the name of jihad. I continue to get warning messages, though not as frequently as earlier. Now I don’t openly fight with them as my parents asked me to avoid issues,” she told TNM.
Several messages that she received said that “women should not expose themselves in public”, advised her that her “beauty should be hidden” and also warned that only “pure women” enter heaven, while others face the wrath of Allah.
Shereen continues to face these threats boldly, but others say that familial pressure resulted in them cowing down.
Zahira Shevvad, a 26-year-old married woman from Kannur, now based in Oman had to remove all the photographs she had on Facebook after marriage, as her husband made it clear that he didn’t like her sharing her photos.
So these days, even her profile image is a photograph of her husband and son. “My family was open-minded and never restricted me. I wore the dresses I wanted to, I took photos and shared them with my friends too. But my husband says that it is against Islam to expose our beauty in public. So even if I post photos with my family, I black out my face on it. Sometimes I don;t face the camera in group photos, I simply show my back.”
(This is a representational picture. But when Zahira Shevvad shares a family picture on Facebook, she normally hides her face with some sort of special effect)
She admits to feeling offended but reconciles to the situation saying, “After all he is my husband, I have to obey him. This is what I was taught”.
However, if you thought this was the predicament faced only by women from northern Kerala living in the Middle East, it couldn’t be farther from the truth. The experience of Amna Hafeez, a philosophy postgraduate living in Kasargode, Kerala, is proof of that.
“I used to post photos regularly, where I was usually in a hijab and sometimes in a burqa, which revealed only my face. Once, while I was returning home, a group of men followed me and threatened me. I was alone and got scared. I have also been receiving many threats, mainly from men in UAE warning me not post my photos, claiming that it is against Islam. I just stopped uploading pictures. We are used to it, no use in defending it,” she concludes.
Some women from Mangaluru and some parts of coastal Karnataka, which border northern Kerala also faces a similar situation. Around two years ago, a woman in Mangaluru she had received threats, and sexually coloured abuse on her Facebook wall for putting up photographs of herself without her burqa and being outspoken of her views of the burqa – she does not believe in wearing it.
Most girls from this region – coastal Karnataka and the Malabar coast of Kerala – keen on having Facebook profiles are instructed by their parents or even teachers at local madrassas to use wallpaper photos on their profiles.
What is common to both these regions is the migration to West Asian countries, where Wahhabi Islam is practiced. Men who work there come back believing that the Islamic practices there, are “authentic”. Many older people say that this is a trend that began to appear in the last 10-15 years.
There are, however, women who have never had such an experience. A 26-year-old woman from Malappuram who is living in Australia said she freely uploads pictures of herself and has never been trolled for it.
Scholars of Islam contend this narrow interpretation of how Muslim women should behave in public domains.
Fazal Gafoor, the Director of Muslim Education Society (MES) in Kozhikode, does not think that any restrictions are being imposed by religion on women taking their photographs or uploading them.
“This is not a big issue I have seen many Muslim girls making use of all social media platforms. There are many stereotypes related to this religion. Sometimes people misunderstand the ideas, other than that is no issue like this,” he adds. .