The human race has several problems to deal with — a country left in shambles thanks to whims of Mother Nature, gender discrimination, crimes and hatred. Why then, do we choose to blow trivial things out of proportion, to widen the rifts that already exist? In what can be perhaps best described as a classic case of religious intolerance, a 15-year-old schoolgirl in France was sent back home, apparently because she was wearing a ‘long, black skirt’.
What’s disturbing about this entire incident is the way it panned out. It began with the girl being asked to remove her headgear. Even after that was obeyed, the person concerned wasn’t happy. Her ‘long, black skirt’ apparently flouted norms and therefore, she was packed off.
The question here is, why, when we are tolerant towards all the hate crimes taking place notoriously all across the globe, we are intolerant towards something as simple and as harmless as wanting to wear what we want? Has the right to express ceased to exist? Are people going to gain access to education based on what they wear? Is religion a bar for something that rightfully belongs to all of us?
One incident in France has set these often brushed-under-the-carpet questions ablaze.
This isn’t the first time when religious intolerance has surfaced on a common ground. Several sports persons have had to face the ire of authorities, who have seldom respected religious sentiments. Indian volleyball players, for example, weren’t allowed to practice, because they were wearing their headgears. Such insensitive behaviour and disrespect to religion itself is enough to spark riots, causing more hatred, which we are already fighting. One thing might lead to another, snowballing into an issue we might not be able to handle appropriately.
The question is, do we really need this? Why can’t diverse religions coexist without having to wring each others’ necks? Why can’t we understand that religious attires do us no harm? Why can’t we live and let live? And why choose the innocent? Doesn’t 15-year-old Sarah have a right to learn? Does she have to remove her headscarf, a religious belief to be able to study? What if under such compulsion, students and sportspersons never get to live their dreams?
Think about it. It’s unnecessary.