The Indian Politics of Hijab: The passport that reads “A Purdah Nashin Lady (A Veiled Lady)"
Words by Hafsa Rahman
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The Indian Politics of Hijab: The passport that reads “A Purdah Nashin Lady (A Veiled Lady)"
When I compare the months-long discourse surrounding the Hijab in Karnataka, India, which banned the wearing of hijab in the school premises, with the discovery of my great-grandfather's old passport, it astounds me. the months long discourse.
I am reminded of a seemingly strange encounter during my visit to my hometown Gaya, Bihar back in December 2023, during my holidays, I found a piece of history that could counter the stereotypes around hijab and even subvert them.
When I was clearing my old drawer, I came across the old passport of my great-grandfather. As I leafed through its delicate, yellowed pages, I found his picture. Adjacent to his picture, on the left, where his wife’s (my grandmother’s) photograph should have been, there was a blank space. And in this space, it was scribbled in English: ‘Purdah Nashin lady’ meaning ‘a veiled lady’.
The passport was issued on October 29, 1954, in Patna, Bihar. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was the then prime minister of the country. The blank space that denoted the ‘Pardah Nashin lady,’ brought me to an India that was not just seventy years away rather an India that was so spatially away now that one cannot bring it to imagination despite conscious efforts.