It was around August that I first came to know about the braid chopping incidents. The first incident was reported from Anantnag, south Kashmir where the braid of a school girl was chopped. The incident had occurred inside her home. It was surprising at the start. Would they ever come for me? Seemed like a distant thought. Within no time, they were in North Kashmir as well. But who are they?
No one exactly knows. By and large, people believe that it is a state conspiracy to divert attention of people from other political issues. The state on the other hand, supposing its just hysteria, has no clear answers. In the north, it was a dejected lover trying to meet her love interest who was suspected to be a braid chopper and elsewhere it was group of tourists who were suspected. Couple of days back, police arrested those spreading rumors about the choppers but not the choppers.
Who ever these mischief mongers are, at the receiving end, are always the women. In reaction to any incident happening in Kashmir, there are always certain chalked responses. Its either political or patriarchal, and in this case, the responses are a mix of both. Political in the way people are trying to decode the incidents by suspecting the state’s hand in this. In the middle of the night as someone shouted for help against the braid choppers, the crowd gathered in response. It was followed by sloganeering against the Indian state, lauding Zakir Musa and for the moment the actual incident was forgotten.
By and large, people believe that it is a state conspiracy to divert attention of people from other political issues.
The patriarchal responses are rather remarkable here. There is no denying in that the society here reserves higher respect for women who wear the hijab. Although many women don’t choose to wear one, and don’t very often get bothered by others about it but braid chopping has now become a legitimate reason for people to dictate women to cover their heads.
In the past one week, on numerous occasions, I was asked, rather dictated, by random men and women on streets to cover my head and when I refused, the usual response was that it was women like me who had brought about this infliction of braid chopping on the entire society. Saying this not only depicted their dislike for me not covering my head, but also a certain degree of support for braid chopping of women who refused to cover their heads.
According to people with this mindset, the best self defense for a woman in any situation is a having a covered head. The most surprising one was when two young boys came
over to me while I was siting in a public park and bragged that they had chopped the braids of two women before coming to me there. I stared back and shrugged. They left me untouched. I could say it from their face that they had not done any of what they claimed and had come only to threaten me and force me into doing something that I will
never be doing out of coercion.
However, never did it did strike me if it was me and women like me, women who dress rather conventionally but choose not to wear the hijab, that was really responsible for inviting this trouble. My uncovered head is not an invitation to anyone to come and chop my hair and I pity anyone who believes otherwise.
There is no denying in that the society here reserves higher respect for women who wear the hijab.
The apprehensions about the movement of women are also increasing. My parents have started becoming uneasy with my movement outside house in early and late hours when the streets are mostly deserted. I observe most school going females waiting at bus stands accompanied by their parents, especially males. Moreover, most incidents reported took
place inside the homes. So not are their braids just being chopped, the already limited participation of women in public life is gradually shrinking.
In addition to being associated with countless meaningless things, hair and hair length is also considered to be a marker of woman’s honour and dignity. Fixing so much meaning to a braid is problematic, for in the near future the women whose braids have been allegedly chopped have to face another stigma of being “undignified”, something women with short hair are already facing. There is no honour in having long hair or short, when it is thrust upon a person. There is another interpretation of the incidents that some women might be chopping it on their own. One cannot rule this out given that the honour linked with long hair, women don’t very often get a choice of having short hair.
Featured Image Credit: Bliss Bloom
