Did Sushma Swaraj promote a ‘Hijab’ culture through her ‘Iran Look’? Indians feel embarrassed!

As Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj promotes an ‘Hijab’ culture through her ‘Iran Look’, it fires up Twitter enormously. 

Upananda Brahmachari | HENB | New Delhi | April 18, 2016:: Her Party’s ‘Hindu Nationalist‘ face Narendra Modi once ignored to wear a ‘skull cap’ offered by a Muslim cleric in an meeting during his Prime Ministerial election campaign. Her party  BJP always criticizes WB CM Mamata Banerjee for her odd ‘Hijab’ look as it amounts to spread an Arab Culture against women liberation. But, now she takes a veil of a pink shwal to make a ‘Hijab’ in her Iran visit that irks a lot in India and abroad.

Yes, Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj’s look in Iran – draped in pink from head to toe – has been extensively critiqued online.

Images of Ms Swaraj in a pink sari and matching shawl at a meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani have gone viral and fed a debate on whether she was right to cover her head.

Comments ranged from lacerating to mildly disapproving to aggressive.

An uncharitable tweet said the minister “is wearing a pink potato sack”, but it has since been deleted after heated argument.

In Iran, the law requires all women to cover up. Some women dignitaries have tried to resist it, though without success.

Reports say Italy’s Emma Bonino, the EU Foreign minister, was forced to wear a headscarf in 2014 after she landed in Tehran. The Iranian Chief of Protocol reportedly came to the tarmac with three headscarves for her, which she first refused. She hastily grabbed one when Iran reportedly threatened to cancel her visit.

Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop also wore a headscarf in Iran a year ago. Some conservative media outlets still complained that she had not “completely complied with hijab requirements”. Ms Bishop responded to the criticism saying: “This is our first visit to Iran in 12 years and I do not want to make it our last.”

But, no one came up with a sharp stand as ‘why Iran and other Arab countries put these Islamic compulsions to non-Muslim visitors and statesmen there’. No one protested this Islamic menace to force Islamic etiquette in Islamic countries. This is another face of the part of Islamic  ‘Cultural Jihad’.

While Tarek Fatah, an Islamic scholar and analyst  comments in a tweet, “This is embarrassing @SushmaSwaraj. You could’ve worn a Sari and pulled the Pallu over yr head”; another Kailash Wagh replies, “@TarekFatah @SushmaSwaraj yes. MEA is supposed to represent India and Indian culture. Will HE Iranian President wear Indian dress in India?”