Minority Women
‘Mostari Banu vs. The Election Commission of India.’ This is the heading on the Supreme Court of India’s record of proceedings for one of the most consequential legal battles in recent history.
It is the story of a 44-year-old homemaker from a remote village at Bhagwangola in Murshidabad who initiated the first legal challenge in this battle. Before Mamata Banerjee Came Mostari Banu: A Homemaker From a Bengal Village is Forcing the ECI to Blink - The Wire
Mostari Banu was quietly filing the first petition to challenge the ECI’s controversial directive requiring passport-sized photographs on voter enumeration forms. “I am a Muslim woman. In our religion, many women prefer to cover their heads and foreheads. It is a matter of our parda and our modesty. When the authorities insist on baring what we have always kept private, it creates fear. I went to the court to ensure that no woman has to choose between her voting rights and her religious obligations,” Mostari tells The Wire.
On November 10, 2025, barely hours before her petition was scheduled for its first hearing, the ECI performed a sudden U-turn. In a formal clarification, the Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal, announced that attaching a photograph was not, in fact, mandatory, directly contradicting the Chief Election Commissioner’s earlier public urgings.
by Aparna Bhattacharya
08/02/2026
Burning the veil: An Indian response Saba Naqvi, SEP 26 2022 https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/burning-the-veil-an-indian-response-1148310.html . I would learn that Iranian women are among the most educated in the region, with an 83% literacy rate and have one of the highest participation in the sciences . Thirty-five people have been killed in the week-long protests that continue across Iran, triggered by the death of a young woman arrested by the morality police, and 750 arrested, according to state TV. Pro-government counter-protests have also begun..
https://www.nme.com/news/music/yungblud-speaks-out-mahsa-amini-3317082 “I am not gonna stand here and question someone’s religion, but I am gonna fucking fight for expression. I am gonna fight for freedom and I am gonna fight for the women of fucking Iran right now. The right to express yourself is your right and your right alone. said Yungblud just two days ago https://twitter.com/i/status/1574022845054713856 https://www.nme.com/news/music/yungblud-speaks-out-mahsa-amini-3317082
https://www.livelaw.in/high-court/bombay-high-court/plea-in-bombay-high-court-challenges-ban-on-hijab-at-mumbais-ng-acharya-and-dk-marathe-college-260551 Plea In Bombay High Court Challenges Ban On Hijab At Mumbai's NG Acharya And DK Marathe College by Amisha Shrivastava .. 14 June 2024 The college notice stipulates that students must adhere to a dress code that does not reveal any religious affiliation such as burkha, nakab, hijab, cap, badge, stole etc... “Petitioners state that the college trustees, teaching and non— teaching staff of respondent college follow and propagate their pooja/religious beliefs and culture during commencement/conclusion of annual functions and cultural programs organised in college. Petitioners never had, and do not have, any difficulty to any such as religious or cultural practice or belief. More so, religious pendent, Bindi, Teeka, religious treads around wrist, rakhi and finger rings are allowed in the classroom and thus, imposing restrictions on selectively is per-se discriminatory, illegal and bad-in-law”, the petition further contends.
Muslim Women’s identity amidst religion and the State https://theleaflet.in/muslim-womens-identity-amidst-religion-and-the-state/ HASINA KHAN·MARCH 8, 2023
Extracts:
Post the 1992 Mumbai communal riots, when the Muslim community collectively faced aggression from the right-wing on the pretext of their identity, most Muslims assimilated to project their religious force against the right-wing’s attack. This assimilation caused division between the religious groups trying to conserve Muslim identity, and another group voicing concerns over the lack of welfare schemes, education and employment opportunities for Muslims and their socio-economic backwardness... We have witnessed the criminalisation of the Triple Talaq debate through which the State aimed to protect Muslim women from supposed regressive practices. This criminalisation portrays Muslim women as mute spectators incapable of taking their own decisions.
Five years later, the hijab row in Karnataka highlights the relationship between politics, culture and religion. The State has been incompetent in providing affirmative action to increase Muslim women’s participation in the workforce. It has removed scholarships for minority students, such as the Maulana Azad fellowship for research scholars. Instead, the priority has been to impose a uniform code of conduct in educational institutions, which paves the way for a code of conduct for Muslim women in Indian society.
The idea of one nation, language and code of conduct devoid of religious affinity seems utopian and beautiful, but is dangerous in the Indian context, as I believe the singularity connotes majoritarian, right-wing, Hindu values...
Hijab row shows why we should see Muslim women’s rights through the dual lens of religion and gender https://theleaflet.in/hijab-row-shows-why-we-should-see-muslim-womens-rights-through-the-dual-lens-of-religion-and-gender/
The issues formed in this case come from a place of patriarchal, religious ideology. It questions whether the hijab is an essential religious practice. This line of questioning and forming the issues takes away autonomy from Muslim women to make decisions on their religion, cultural practice and personal expression. It then becomes a question of what is allowed by the religion.
However, Muslim women and girls, just like any other women, are diverse. Some may opt to wear the hijab while some may not. Some may profess their faith (openly), while others might be agnostic or atheistic. Despite this, the affiliation in society due to name and other identity categories would put all the women as Muslim. ..
the many ways in which intersectional discrimination against Muslim women manifests – whether in criminal justice system, employment laws or labour laws. It comes from prejudices and stereotypes of Muslim women made out of a cookie cutter mould – cut within the strict religious tenets of Islam. This denies the wide diversity Muslim women in India showcase, reclaiming dignity through their bravery and autonomy: from the way Bilkis Bano fought her case courageously in courts, to Muslim women leading the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 in 2019-20, to an organisation led by a Muslim woman highlighting the discrimination in employment practices faced by Muslim women.
Women’s rights are diverse; similarly Muslim women’s issues are diverse. A homogenous understanding of our rights is a disservice to the plurality of the Indian population.
this series covers then hijab ban hearings at the Supreme Court in India.
Discrimination in the criminal justice system,
Parts I https://theleaflet.in/portrait-of-a-modern-indian-muslim-woman-bilkis-bano-and-the-criminal-justice-system/ Portrait of a modern Indian Muslim woman: Bilkis Bano and the criminal justice system
ALMAS SHAIKH·AUGUST 22, 2022
II https://theleaflet.in/targeting-a-minority-within-the-minority-through-digital-crime-perpetuates-power-imbalance/ Targeting a minority within the minority through digital crime perpetuates power imbalance
ALMAS SHAIKH·AUGUST 26, 2022
inherent bias in the employment practices, against Muslim women., and
Part III https://theleaflet.in/overcoming-hiring-bias-towards-substantive-equality-in-employment-for-muslim-women/ Overcoming hiring bias: Towards substantive equality in employment for Muslim women
ALMAS SHAIKH·SEPTEMBER 5, 2022
On September 20, 2022, the government of Karnataka told the Supreme Court that Muslim girls in Udupi were goaded into wearing a hijab to school by the Popular Front of India (PFI) through social media messages. The state government made the argument while responding to a petition challenging the ban on wearing a hijab to school imposed by Karnataka, and upheld by the state high court. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the apex court that wearing a hijab was part of a ‘larger conspiracy’ orchestrated by the PFI to create social unrest.
On October 13 this year, the Supreme Court of India delivered a split verdict on pleas challenging the Karnataka high court order that had upheld the ban. A constitutional bench comprising the Chief Justice of India will now examine whether Muslim girls can or cannot wear a head scarf in school.
As on December 1 this year, there were 69,598 cases pending before the Supreme Court. Out of this, 488 matters are before constitutional benches, which means that they are being heard by five-, seven- or nine-judge benches. The backlog includes petitions challenging the Modi government’s Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019, pleas challenging the government’s decision to dilute Article 370 of the Constitution and petitions challenging the constitutional validity of demonetisation. All these pleas have been pending for more than two years. Despite the urgency of matters that have been placed on the back burner, the apex court is being forced to spend its time deciding whether schoolgoing Muslim girls can get an education while wearing a head scarf, a tradition some Muslims believe is integral to their faith.
The ban on wearing a hijab in classrooms may have highlighted the Karnataka government’s intolerance towards minorities, but the bias against the head scarf, it seems, is an old one. Muslim women who wear hijabs claim they are used to disapproving glares and people dismissing them as backward and uneducated.
by Seemi Pasha
21/12/2022
- Split verdict: Why it leaves me, a Left-Liberal, at odds with me, a Progressive Muslim
- Karnataka High Court judgment hurtful, deeply offensive: Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves
- Hijab ban: We are not interpreters of Quran, says SC
- Hijab controversy now in Supreme Court
- A Form of Cultural Cleansing of Muslims