Much Ado About A Tuft Of Hair

Four and a half months ago, I wrote " Me Taliban " post in a state of absolute disgust. I could not fathom how such mindless religious profiling could be demonstrated from the highest echelons of justice in the country.

To his credit, Justice Markandey Katju later apologized for his ill-informed remarks and then a week ago, a modicum of justice and sense finally prevailed and the Supreme Court advocated Nirmala Convent to reinstate the student, Md. Salim, back to school. Shooting down the conduct of the school the Supreme Court termed it "ridiculous" and thereby upheld Salim's plea of being allowed to sport a beard in school.



However, this is just a moral victory against the abysmal racial and religious profiling taking place on a daily basis in this nation. Yes, Salim may have been allowed to sport his beard in school but there are many who face similar issues and are subjected to idiotic rulings stemming from deep rooted bias.

I can recount many similar stories without even striving to remember, yes...they are that common.

### A friend's cousin sister went to this convent school to undergo a course in teacher training. 2 days in to the course, and she was summoned by the Headmistress to her cabin and told in no uncertain terms that she would either have to leave the course or give up her usual dress. What was unusual about her dress, she was wearing a hijab. The fact that the headmistress herself was a nun, wearing an almost similar dress raises disturbing questions about whether the school discipline was at stake or was it something entirely different. 

### An MBA graduate filed an application for a passport. He had all his documents in absolute order. Yet three times in succession, his application form was rejected. Despaired yet undaunted, he filed a fourth time on which, some days later he got a call from the Passport issuing authority of the state himself to meet him in his office. there the man told him, "Son, just shave off your beard and your passport will be issued within a month. You see, the world is not afraid of mullahs and moulvis, it is afraid of young minds like yourselves who could turn to terror." Obviously, for the Passport issuing authority a bearded young boy with a certain name is evidence enough to considering him as a potential terrorist.

### An acquaintance working in a reputed international organization started keeping a beard for some reasons. Less than a week later, he was asked a series of questions by his manager ranging from "what prompted you to keep a beard?" to "are you undergoing some religious/philosophic education?". And finally, in no uncertain terms was told to shave off his beard as it was breeding a "sense of uncomfortability" among the  rest of the staff.

These are not mere exceptional incidences but are rather the norm which occur with disturbing regularity. Swept under the carpet mostly or usually labeled under "actions done to maintain the discipline" of the organization, such occurrences highlight the growing sense of intolerance with respect to symbols of a certain section of the nation.

There was this debate on NDTV moderated by Barkha Dutt where this ex army general kept on harping about how some institutions were above the rule of the constitution and should be allowed to formulate their own set of rules. He was of course referring to the army's explicit denial of anyone being allowed to sport a beard except if you are a Sikh. Now, the first question which arises is what's different between a Sikh's beard and a Muslim's beard. Why these different yardsticks. The second question which comes to mind is how the bloody hell does a tuft of hair on one's chin in any way affect his gun toting displays for the army. How can a beard be of any consequence in a profession which requires bravery, spirit, nationalism and professionalism. Hard to fathom.

Another growing belief is that of equating the beard to religious fundamentalism and terrorism in that order. For this belief I have just a couple of disdainful lines.

How many of the 9/11 bombers were bearded. Go check.
How many of the 26/11 terrorists were bearded. Again, go check.

I end this post with a sense of hope still in ,my heart that such blatant religious profiling can be exterminated from the very roots in this nation. The Supreme Court's verdict on the Md. Salim case gives me that hope and I would like to congratulate the Supreme court for it's logical and very needed observations.

I do wonder though, why so much ado about a fistful of hair:(