What is the hijab? I ask myself sitting on the fence of an issue that is close to my heart and home. An imaginary oppression or a tool of disempowerment; a personal choice or forced belief; a positive protector or problematic practice—there is no one strict interpretation of the word. The idealisation of it often puts women who choose not to wear it in a challenging position. As India sees worrying protests after a group of six Muslim students at a government-run women’s college was denied entry into their classrooms because the authorities claimed they were challenging rules of uniform by wearing the hijab, the world too, stands divided. 

Aliya A and Anah Shaikh