Dress codes are an accepted fact of life in societies worldwide, but Hyderabad's Tehreek Muslim Shabban (TMS) must be a pioneer in prescribing a dress code for going to the movies.A sacred garment cannot be used for the performance of a profane function, they say. Ergo, women in burqas ought not be found watching wet-look stomach dances in the cinema halls of Hyderabad. Unassailable logic, it would seem.But is the burqa a sacred garment in the true sense of the term? Not quite. Muslim scripture prescribes it for constant, everyday use, not as a garment for sacred occasions. Therefore, the rules governing its use would appear to fall within the sphere of social law based on religion, not religious law per se. Besides, in our democracy, the decision to wear a burqa is purely personal. In other words, the law governing its use is subservient to the general secular law of the land. Hardly the attribute of a core religious law.A burqa-cad woman in a cinema hall does not contradict any interpretation of the Koran, any more than a court ruling on Muslim divorce settlement does. The TMS must learn to differentiate between social and religious law, at the peril of looking ridiculous. In fact, the organisation should take a look at the bigger picture.As one woman being prevented from entering a cinema hall by its cadres pointed out, there is a lot more of what the TMC believes to be smut on Star TV than in the movie theatres. And a whole lot more of what poor Rupert Murdoch cannot even imagine on the videos supplied by private cable operators. The TMC would find itself better employed and win a lot more support from the people if it were to face up to these. A lot of viewers, irrespective of their religious affiliation, are just as concerned about such programmes entering their homes as the TMC is about burqas being soiled by exposure to the contortions of Govinda or Shahrukh Khan. Besides, there is a gender issue before the TMC as well. If a woman in a burqa is capable of ruining the faith, so is a Muslim man who wears his beard in the traditional fashion. It is as unmistakable an image of the faith as the woman's burqa. It is regrettable that the TMC is guilty of the very sin for which Muslims are pilloried everywhere of making their women pay the price for their religion. It could have chosen far more progressive ways of expressing its faith. For instance, it could prevent old Arabs from marrying Hyderabadi girls young enough to be their granddaughters.The TMS is devaluing Islam far more successfully than any woman in Hyderabad possibly can. It is projecting the burqa as a sort of tribal totem, which it certainly is not, rather than an approved form of dress for both secular and religious life. The teachings of the Prophet are not so mean as the organisation believes. They are more concerned with the life of the spirit, with the core values that drive an ideal society, than with the external appurtenances of the earthly life. The TMS cadres believe themselves to be the defenders of the faith. In reality, the faith should defend itself from the TMS cadres.
