EYE. PEE. YELL: IDENTITY CRISIS
By Sabin Iqbal
On Apr 05, 2010

Sometime in our life, we go through phases where our identity is challenged or faces a crisis. The 9/11 attacks have split the world in an unprecedented manner, and we keep running into situations where our cultural and personal identities are under scrutiny, especially if we live in a foreign country with multiracial, multicultural neighbours.


Our identity can be one of default (by birth) or by preference. Both could come under a cloud.


Come April 22, Belgium could be the first European country to make wearing burka (veil) in public places illegal.


It has opened a can of worms.


I don’t personally subscribe to the belief that all Muslim women should wear a veil. My mother doesn’t; neither does my sister. But if someone wants to wear it, it is up to them as long as it doesn’t put others’ life in danger or infringe on others’ freedom.


The Belgian committee has made the step citing national security, which I believe is valid since we increasingly read about burka-clad women exploding as suicide bombers. The recent suicide bombs in Chechnya are an example.


In France also there are attempts to ban burka in public, despite growing opposition.


A few people have voiced their concerns against the Belgian move, saying it is against personal freedom.


Talking of personal freedom, I have a few things to share. I have lived nearly 15 years in the Middle East. The expatriate populations in these countries are treated second-class citizens who don’t even think of personal freedoms or civil rights.


In one of these countries, every woman, irrespective of her faith or preference, has to wear a hijab. You and I know that there are thousands of women who don’t like it but have no choice if they want to live there. We have heard innumerable stories of the religious police and their crude ways.

What about personal freedom?


Go to any of these countries during Ramadan and eat something in public during the day. You will be picked up by police for flouting the rule that during Ramadan you are not allowed to eat anything in public whether you fast or not, whether you share the faith or not.

Where is the so-called personal freedom here?


For some time, Sharjah had introduced a ‘decency law’ by which anyone not ‘properly dressed’ could be arrested. Women wearing even saris were frowned upon! Men who wore shorts were under threat of being coated with black paint!


Where is this personal freedom?


I remember reading a small bit of news some years ago from one of the States in the US about a woman’s litigation against the authorities who had asked her to remove her burka while taking a photograph for identity card. How could she file litigation against the rule that photographs on identity cards must have facial details for security and identification purposes?


It is surprising that a country like Belgium, with its stark linguistic division between the Flemish-speaking Flanders and the French-speaking Wallonia, has unanimously backed the proposed ban on burka. It means there is a general feeling against the women wearing burka. The argument defending the Bill as it is to ‘liberate women’ is absurd as no one has given Brussels any responsibility to take up a moral cause. It is still a personal choice, but if wearing burka helps the militants in any way, it should be checked.

I spent the summer of 2001 in Belgium, and stayed at a Belgian friend’s apartment. One of their concerns that I found out from Mamma, my friend’s old mom, was the increasing population of North African immigrants. Once a few of them—from Algeria, Morocco or Tunisia—moved to an apartment, the Belgians would ease themselves out of the building. It was not about discrimination, but it was against a cultural invasion as the immigrants, from a different culture, played their music loud, laughed and shouted, giving scant respect to the Belgians, who in turn became uneasy of the newcomers.


My friend’s sister showed me a political refugee walking along the street, and told me that her child was studying in a better school than her own children’s school. I got strong vibes of resentment from the pleasant, friendly woman whose husband was a Lebanese.


Sometime in our life, we tend to ask in retrospection: “Who am I? And what am I doing here?”


My own little, insignificant identity was under some duress when I decided to marry a Christian girl 10 years ago. Everyone expected her to change her name, at least as a formality and to please some egos. But I was against it. There were some weak protests and attempts from the religious sect to put my mother under stress by saying that she wouldn’t be buried in the cemetery next to the family mosque. I had to put my foot down and say that I was an Indian citizen, and a journalist, and I had the right to marry anyone, and that if anyone threatened my mother because of it, I’d approach the court.


That settled it.


When I was working with a newspaper in Sharjah, one of my Muslim colleagues asked me why I was wearing a gold ring as it was against my default identity. I pointed to his expensive, golden wristwatch and asked for an explanation. That settled it, but he hardly spoke to me after that.


Sania Mirza and Shoaib Malik are in a pre-honeymoon soup. I believe no one has any right to dictate to Sania whom she should marry or not marry. She can very well marry a Pakistani since it is her life and she will not become an enemy to India by marrying a Pakistani. I have interviewed Sania when she came to Dubai as part of her endorsement with a jewellery brand, and she came across as an intelligent girl with quick, bold answers and opinions, though I don’t read much into the quality of her tennis. There are scores of Russian and Central and Eastern European teenagers who play much better tennis. But they are not Indians and not pretty, and they don’t have a media starving for comely heroines.


It’s not only people who are in identity crisis. Cricket too is undergoing a painful, stressful identity crisis since the invasion by the IPL.


Is the IPL cricket after all? Or, is it just tamasha cricket? Is cricket Modi’s toy or Boycott’s religion?


I don’t know.


But I admire the Pathans and the Tiwaris. And, the way Collingwood and Taylor swung the bat across last night and powered the ball into the second tier of the stands. It takes some talent whether in the IPL or in Tests.


At the same time I admire Dravid’s Wall and Boycott’s brick. I mean, BRICK. (Do you know that the Arabs pronouce P as B?)


Identity crisis. What else?


sabin
Sabin Iqbal
Editor, Yentha.com