No to Ninja
Nuisance
By Dr Q. Isa Daudpota
Islamabad, Pakistan
My
eighty-year Lahori aunt and the country's police
force have one thing in common. My gynecologist
aunt refuses to employ any staff in her clinic
who wears a hijab, let alone the face-hiding Ninja
headgear, which is becoming increasingly common
in our cities. Patients need to communicate unambiguously
with their caregivers – would you like a
Ninja peering down your mouth or another orifice,
or asking you questions muffled by a face-clinging
fabric?
Lone Ranger had his day. Today the police refuse
talking to masked men. They sometimes even haul
up those who drive in cars with privacy preserving
dark glasses. In our fear-laced times you need
to know exactly whom you are talking to.
The same concern applies to educational institutions
where it becomes impossible to communicate with
Ninja female students with blinking eyes. This
is made worse when the lecturer too adopts this
garb. While a hijab may be recommended according
to some religious interpretations as a means of
maintaining personal modesty, the Ninja version
of it isn't! Thus the paragons of modernism in
the Ministry of Education and the Higher Education
Commission should issue orders banning the masked
headgear in all education institutions.
As for the militant women in places such as Jamia
Hafsa the solution is clear. If they stopped being
supported by government agencies, they could be
flushed out by means commonly known. A more humane
way is to show them a better alternative: have
the Aabpara Community Center located near their
madrassa offer good discounted food, show interesting
enlightening films, free internet access and classes
in modern thought. Also teach skills, which get
them employed in a worldly job.
Pakistan's dilemma is clear-cut though: it cannot
rest in peace until religion remains mixed up
with the workings of the state. It is time that
those who gain international publicity using the
slogans of modernism show their concern by stamping
out the menace of the Ninjas. Such hypocrites
refuse to even voice their concern in unambiguous
terms.
