Javed Akhtar on Muslim-Hindu fundamentalists

BOMBAY TIMES EXCLUSIVE
A police van is stationed out of doors Javed Akhtar’s Mumbai house when we meet him on Monday afternoon. Even we are carefully monitored as we enter the development. As quickly as we meet him, the senior lyricist and poet lauds Mumbai Police and clarifies that they've deployed safety at his house on their very own, after the Karni Sena’s risk to him on Sunday, over his comment on banning the ghoonghat and burqa. The fringe outfit demanded an apology from the author within 3 days, threatening him with “dire penalties”. Concerned by the unsettling language of fringe elements, Javed sahab settles down and explains that he's scheduled to meet the police commissioner later within the day to talk about the problem. He reiterates that his commentary was once intended for women empowerment, and that he has been striving to achieve gender equality for the longest time and receiving threats isn’t new for him, particularly from Muslim fundamentalists. Excerpts:

In the wake of your comment on banning the burqa and ghoonghat in combination, the president of the Maharashtra wing of the Karni Sena instructed TOI, ‘The burqa is associated with terrorism and (is a query of) national safety. We have asked Akhtar to render an apology about ghoonghat within 3 days or face the results’. What’s your reaction to this?
People who are asking me to apologise possibly don’t know that my buddies and I have been relentlessly preventing the burqa, naqab and purdah observe for 20 years. We have spoken towards triple talaq years in the past, when it wasn’t within the information. My credentials in these issues are impeccable. I have always stood towards the regressive mindset of the minority community, because to convey a couple of change, you should first have a look at the community that you just had been born in. That’s your first duty. I have discussed ghoonghat once and you wish to have me to apologise? Are you trying to ruin my credibility in my battle towards the mullahs? You need me to lose face in front of the folks I’ve been preventing towards for years? Is this what you wish to have to achieve? Everybody knows that ghoonghat isn't a non secular belief, but a convention. I have gained messages the place people have instructed me that the ghoonghat custom is withering away and it’s most effective left in villages. If it’s not that prevalent anyway, why react this manner?

They additionally mentioned, ‘We will gouge out your eyes and pull out your tongue should you don’t apologise. We will enter your home and beat you’...
Haan, penalties ki element bhi di hai. People can oppose. We can mutually disagree. Their idea of morality and culture is different and what I say can also be outrageous to them. If you're disenchanted, then you can even cross to courtroom and sue me, but this isn't how to serve as in a civilised society, the place you're being compelled to apologise. You can’t say that intolerance has increased or freedom of speech has been curtailed, because should you do, then you will be labelled as anti-national or pseudo secular, and so on. This isn't the India that I have grown up in. We are identified for our talent to co-exist. It saddens me slightly as I am pleased with our democratic charter that grants you the freedom of expression. We can say things right here that aren't conceivable in our neighbouring countries. Different points of view should be heard.

Did you worry that your commentary may cause such an uproar?
I don’t know why they have got made this into the sort of large factor. I have always adversarial the burqa. Most of the time, these Muslim fundamentalists suppose that I most effective oppose them. Likewise, Hindu fundamentalists suppose that they are always the target. My point is, any type of covering the face, whether it’s a ghoonghat, naqab or burqa, any custom whether spiritual or social, which expects a lady to cover her face, is a hindrance to her empowerment. That should be banned. Maybe, in Sri Lanka it’s finished for safety. In our nation it should be finished for women empowerment. It may or may not be a risk to safety, but this is a risk to a girl’s progress.

Why did you are feeling the need to equate the burqa and the ghoonghat? A burqa covers a lady from head to toe, whilst a ghoonghat in part covers the face. Why the will for ‘if you're banning the burqa, then ban the ghoonghat’?
There is no ‘if’. It’s not tit for tat. I am not trying to stability things out. Why would you quilt a human being’s face? Anything that restricts freedom and progress should be stopped, duration! I didn’t talk from the security standpoint. I spoke about women empowerment. It’s not about equating. Whether you're covering a lady’s face for religion, custom or values or culture... you're still covering her face. There is no difference. Why prohibit women?

Several countries have banned full-face veils...
France has stepped forward of others and I admire that. You can’t put on your religion on your sleeve in public workplaces. That manner France is even-handed. You can’t show your spiritual identification so openly. Country comes first. I really like that.

However, in October 2018, the United Nations Human Rights Committee mentioned that the ban imposed by France on face-covering veils is a contravention of human rights...
I utterly disagree with this. To say that it’s a selection of a lady? No. You have banned sati, haven’t you? Did you are saying it should be a selection of a lady? You mentioned it’s fallacious, so prevent it. Should it be a selection of a minor or her parents or the man marrying a child whether to bask in child marriage or not? There are positive practices which might be fallacious and also you don’t must watch for your communities to make a decision that for you. Some things need to be imposed. I have always adversarial triple talaq as smartly. These things can’t be a matter of choice. If it’s fallacious, it must be abolished. Uncle Tom was once a happy man, but Abraham Lincoln still selected to abolish slavery.

Why shouldn’t a burqa or ghoonghat be a matter of choice?
I feel that because most women can’t make a decision that out of free will. There will be peer pressure. They are brainwashed since youth and conditioned to imagine that that’s the way forward. Some women may really feel that if I put on the burqa, I will be able to win some brownie points from my community, the men folk within the family will be satisfied and that will give me more elbow room. There are many causes... First give them that freedom for 100 years after which ask them in the event that they want to put on a burqa. Let a few generations are living without the naqab first after which give them a option to make a decision if they would like it back.

Recently, a lady’s video went viral the place she criticised younger girls for wearing brief attire and ‘inviting rape’.
So all the women who put on long attire, saris, salwar kameez and lehengas, which quilt them from head to toe are never raped? Within women, a lot of women are brainwashed into believing the fallacious things.

Shahid Afridi printed in his guide that he gained’t allow his daughters to play cricket. He wrote, ‘Cricket? No, not for my girls. They have permission to play all the indoor games they would like, but my daughters aren't going to be competing in public sporting actions. It’s for social and religious causes that I’ve made this resolution and their mom has the same opinion with me.’

I didn’t have an concept that for women, cricket is haram in Islam. But what else do you are expecting from this Pakistani highbrow massive like Shahid Afridi?

What’s your take on spiritual identification?

Be it kebab and biryani or my love for poetry... I have cultural commonalities with my community — North Indian Urdu-speaking Muslims. But I am not spiritual in any respect. I don’t percentage my community’s beliefs so far as religion is concerned. I am an atheist.