Lucknow, Aug 18: Sana Akhtar, clad in a trendy top, jeans and Nike shoes to match, sits with her motley group of friends in the new Barista outlet, sipping coffee and tucking into a fresh walnut brownie. When it is time to go home, Sana kick starts her scooty and speeds off. A second-year B.A. student at a prestigious local college, she lives with her grand-parents in the congested and highly conservative Chowk area. Her parents are settled in Canada where her father works with a multinational company. Despite hailing from a conservative Muslim background, and that too in Lucknow, the young woman is not a bit apologetic about her lifestyle.
“Times are changing and every Muslim girl does not hide herself behind a burqa. Yes, my grandmother was rather upset when I started wearing jeans to college, and she even wailed a bit about family izzat but now she has reconciled herself. She was even more taken aback when I made my father buy me this scooty because a girl on a two-wheeler was almost blasphemous for her. Now she has accepted this too. In fact she even accepts the fact, though rather grudgingly, that I have a few male friends and hang out with them,” says Sana. Sana is one of the many new-generation Muslim women who are breaking out of the mould to lead a lifestyle that was, till not long back, considered taboo in Muslim households. Girls were expected to hide their coy act behind a burqa, to move about in a strictly female domain and shun all that is new and trendy. The new generation may be breaking out of the shell, but it is not on the sly.
“My parents and grandparents know exactly what I am doing, and it is perhaps my honesty about my lifestyle that has made them accept me as I am,” says Sana.
Arif Siddiqui, a computer science student, on the other hand, dons a beard “that gives me my distinct Muslim identity,” and even wears a topi when he goes to the mosque for namaaz. His attitude, however, is extremely liberal — one that allows his friends to even tease and banter with him openly about circumcision, the four-marriage option in Islam and similar issues. “Come on, why be stupid enough to take these issues to heart? If they tease me about something then I do the same too. I am not going to dump my friends on such issues. I am a Muslim and am proud of it, but that does not mean that I am a religious fanatic ready to draw out swords on the slightest pretext. I sport a beard only to prove a point — that Muslims with their identity can also have a modern outlook and offering namaaz five times a day does not make one less secular,” he explains.
Strangely, even as the Muslim youth is breaking out of the traditional mould and facing the world with a new attitude, more and more young boys and girls are turning to religion.
“That is because we want to have the best of both worlds. Aren’t more and more young Hindu girls and boys practising the Art of Living or meditation? So what is wrong if Muslim youth practice their religion? It gives us peace of mind and also makes us proud of being Muslims,” says Mohammed Javed Ansari, who is doing his masters in business administration from Lucknow University.
Interestingly, even though the Muslim youth today keeps religion close to its heart, it is no longer interested in issues like the Babri Masjid demolition.
“How I wish that you people would get over with this issue. When the demolition took place, each one of us felt terrible but you cannot dedicate your entire life to one event.
When a death takes place in the family, everyone mourns for a period of time and then life moves on. It has been almost 11 years since the mosque was demolished but the entire community is still being held to ransom on the issue,” says Fatima Mirza, a young business entrepreneur who runs a garment business.
The others agree. “It is actually the politicians who want to keep the issue alive so that they can keep hauling us over the coals. The best idea would be to simply seal the disputed area and tell both communities to build their shrines at other places,” suggests Mohammed Javed Ansari, while Sana Akhtar is in favour of a ban on writing about the issue in the media.
“Out of sight is out of mind, right? If you don’t write about the issue, people will forget about it,” she says. Fatima feels that the Babri issue has pushed the entire community back by 20 years.
“Wherever I go in connection with my business and the moment people know that I am a Muslim, communal issues like the Babri demolition creep into the conversation, sooner or later. The issue hounds me throughout, and even adds an element of uncertainty to my business,” she explains.
Significantly, when it comes to career planning, a majority of Muslim boys and girls want to move away from traditional occupations and spread their wings. Sana’s father, for instance, works with a multinational company, but Sana wants to explore career options in theatre. Arif Siddiqui’s father has a flourishing leather export business but the son wants to go abroad for a career in computer science.
Mohammed Javed Ansari, whose father is a government employee, wants to start his own business. And Fatima, whose father was a maulvi, has recently started a boutique on her own.
“Yes, we are changing because the world is changing, and we want to keep pace with everyone else. In fact, Lucknow is changing because we are changing. Why should we lag behind only because we belong to a community that is known to be conservative? We want our space and our share of the sky,” says Sana.
And many others like her are already reaching for the sky.