Mumbai: A Pakistani music video, exhorting parents to not send girl children to school because they can pick up ideas such as dancing, has caused concerns, with groups working on girl's education calling for curbs on such content.
The song in Punjabi rattles off various reasons why girls should not be attending classrooms. The Pakistani YouTuber, identified as Hasan Iqbal Chishti, released a song whose lyrics ask parents to remove daughters from school as they were spotted dancing there. The song could be a reaction to recent viral videos of Pakistani girls in school uniforms dancing to film tunes.
Translated, the lyrics say that girls should be kept at home, covered in purdah, unless parents want to lose respect. A report on the view was released on the social media page of a person who calls himself 'Ex-Muslim Zafar Heretic'.
Concerns have been raised about the video's possible influence on religious orthodox families, but others said there was no need to get worried. "The ground reality is very different. I work in the Muslim community, many of them from Mumbai's slums, and I can say that there is a surge in the number of girls going to school," said Noorjehan Safia Naaz of the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan that helps Muslim women in matters like marriage, divorce, education, and livelihood.
"I do not think the person who made the song is living with reality. Something has shifted in the community. Even in matters like triple talaq - an arbitrary form of divorce banned recently - there are fewer cases."
Naaz added that there was no reason to get unduly worried about the video. "I checked with a friend in Pakistan. It has not gone viral at all. So lets us not push something which has no meaningful significance," she added.
Dr Zeenat Shaukat Ali, former head of the Department of English at St Xavier's College, Mumbai, said that the message in the video was 'patriarchal' and revealed a 'Talibanist' mindset aimed at keeping women subdued and without a voice.
"I have two things to say on this: this man is talking rubbish. There are 805 references to the word 'ilm', which means education, in the Koran. The prophet said that it is the religious duty of every man and woman to seek knowledge. This demolishes his entire message or whatever he wants to say," said Ali.
"Secondly, there are many thinking people. It will be a tragedy if such videos influence people. We live in the information era and studies show that men and women are progressing in education across the world, countries, religions, and genders."
