Dear trolls, it is NOT for Mohammed Shami to decide what his wife wears!

Cricketer Mohammed Shami, on Sunday, slammed the trolls for making shameful comments on his wife Hasin Jahan on Facebook after the bowler posted a picture of her wearing a sleeveless dress and some religious bigots found it ‘un-Islamic’. Funnily, someone advised him to ‘make’ his wife wear a hijab, taking a cue from another cricketer Irfan Pathan whose wife also wears hijab. Shami replied that his wife and daughter were his life and he knew the difference between right and wrong and advised the trolls to introspect.

It is loathsome that Mohammed Shami’s faith and convictions were questioned as his wife was wearing something which didn’t follow their religious norms. However, the more repulsive aspect of the sordid episode was that the criticism for her dress was not directed at her, but at Shami. Not that the comments would have been justified if she was blamed directly. But she was not even considered an equal stakeholder in upholding the so-called highest standards of a practicing Muslim. According to the trolls, it was his husband’s responsibility to force her into submission if needed to be and make her wear hijab even she didn’t want to. Fun fact: even if she would wear hijab like Irfan Pathan’s wife even then her husband would have been credited for keeping his wife in check.

It is a completely different debate whether the purda system is regressive and should be done away with or is an indispensable tenet of  Islam, a transgression of which would be un-Islamic. However, the issue which has been raised here is feministic in nature and pertains to freedom of an individual’s choices. The question here is: why can’t the society give freedom of choice to women and let them be responsible for its consequences?