Anchor Kiran Naz wears burqa on Live TV to protest anti-hijab sentiments

To stage her protest the host wore a three-piece headgear, one item at a time during a live show broadcast

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Niche

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Samaa TV host Kiran Naz surprised viewers by wearing a burqa during a live show broadcast to lodge her protest against depreciating remarks made about the effects ‘purdah’ has on the mental and physical state of women, by Pervez Hoodbhoy.

Appearing on a TV show on News One, Hoodbhoy said that in 1973, when he first started teaching at Quaid-e-Azam University barely one or two girls used to be seen wearing a burqa. But now the burqa has become so common, that it is difficult to see a ‘normal’ person without it. Hoodbhoy also shared his observation that the burqa and hijaab contribute to women hesitating from participating fully and raising questions in class.

These remarks did not settle well with many viewers who came out to raise the point that whatever a woman chooses to wear is solely her own choice, and ‘one must not forget that “Burqa” is among those choices just like “jeans”‘ and other clothing.  Moreover, they pointed out that there have been many ‘brilliant students in abaya & Burqa throughout in college & university’, pointing out the loopholes in Hoodbhoy’s argument.

Meanwhile, Kiran Naz also staged a protest in her own manner, wearing a three-piece headgear, one item at a time during a live show broadcast, saying it was to prove that the women who wear hijab are just as ‘normal’ as the ones who do not wear it, and that wearing it does not change one’s manner of speech or thought in any way.

However, in what may have been a slip of tongue, towards the end of her show she declared that she had adopted this attire to send forth a pro-hijab message to the world, and after the break her team will be continuing the show in a ‘normal’ manner. Using the very same word that she had been criticizing Hoodbhoy for using, throughout her show.

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