Congratulations to Aroosa Parvaiz

The results of 12 classes were declared by JKBOSE recently. The young girl from Srinagar got first position. It is proud moment for all of us. It is heartening to see our girls are giving tough competition to boys in every sphere of life. The peope aren’t making any differences, when it comes to providing quality education to their wards. The family of Aroosa was over the moon, when they saw their ward has come first in the annual examinations. Rightly so. People started pouring in congratulatory messages to her. Unfortunately, a section of the society targeted her for not wearing hijab. It was disheartening to see so much hate and bigotry. The troll army put questions to her years of hardwork. Some people got the opportunity to hide their incompetency behind the veil of religion. This young girl should have been spared. She should have been given the opportunity to enjoy the fruits of her hardwork. She was vilified. Hijab is mandatory for all believing women. Not for just her. The sermons for wearing of hijab should have been for all the women. There are ways to address this issue. You can’t make anyone wear the hijab in this way. If you really cared for her, you could ask for hidayah to her from Allah. It is God almighty, who gives the hidayah. This episode exposed our mentality. It shows that among us also, there are bhakts who are no different than bhakts found in main land India, whose vision is clouded. Who are we to question somebody?? May be She is more closer to Allah then we people. She herself might be thinking that the my dress code is not good enough near Allah. She might have those regrets. Shouldn’t we keep it between her and Allah. Have we achieved virtues, by vilifying her? Take nothing away from her. It takes lot of hard work to excel even in a class test. Topping the exams at state or division level is no mean task. It doesn’t happen overnight. There is years of hardwork behind it. There are lots of sacrifices, which she would have made for her studies. Sometimes, when all the young boys and girls in her neighbourhood would be playing. She would be studying. Her family would have made sacrifices, to make her top the exam. It is very tough to top any examination, as there is cut throat competition. Besides, these days, there are lot of distractions also.
It is very painful to see a young girl wasn’t allowed to celebrate the way, she would have. It is heart breaking to see such an attitude. We should be proud of her achievement. We should be wishing her good luck for the future. There is another young girl, Muskan who has become overnight media sensation for her act of bravery. She stood her ground when she was heckled by goons in the college campus. The goons were chanting Jai shri Ram, vis a vis objecting to her hijab too. She responded them by chanting Allahu Akbar. Liberation can’t imposition. If she is being made to wear hijab or remove it. Both are regressive. If she is wearing, out of her own will, then the hijab is progressive. She is proudly wearing her hijab. One wonders, how would you liberate a girl who is already liberated. She made large number of goons uncomfortable, who tried to heckle her.She was appreciated by all the people. We must be proud of both the sisters. They both have shown us the way. Muskan has shown that one should stood by their rights and not get bowed down by the goons. Arooba is an example for many young girls, who are taking up different examinations. She has shown one would come up with flying colours when efforts are put in. The worst thing, we could do is to draw the comparison between these two sisters. What would we do, when our Sikh or Hindu sister tops some examinations. Would we troll them too for not wearing hijab?? Or would we congratulate them on their feat. Just choose your words wisely; they could be devastating for a person. They could belittle someone’s years of hardwork. Kashmiris are already living in a conflict for long period of time. Don’t ruin the moments of happiness which comes in someone’s life. There is a hadith which says, ” Speak good or stay silent”. So if we haven’t any good thing to say we should keep our mouth shut then.
(The author is a teacher by profession. Views are his own)
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