I Represent Inclusive India: Trinamool MP Nusrat Jahan Responds To Fatwa For Wearing Sindoor
The day after being elected to the Lok Sabha, Trinamool Congress Party's new MP, Nusrat Jahan Ruhi (now Jain) has been subject to trolls and a fatwa for her sartorial choice during the oath-taking ceremony at Parliament.
Mrs. Jahan, who represents Bashirhat in West Bengal, took oath as an MP dressed in a white and red sari (the traditional Bengali Lal Par), with sindoor and chuda (traditional bangles worn by a Hindu bride).
#WATCH: TMC's winning candidate from Basirhat (West Bengal), Nusrat Jahan takes oath as a member of Lok Sabha today. pic.twitter.com/zuM17qceOB
¡ª ANI (@ANI) 25 June 2019
The reason why trolls took this as an opportunity to spread hate is simple: she is a Muslim who married businessman Nikhil Jain. Like any human being, she chose to make her decisions and stick by them. The trolls though continued to spew communal hate and foster negativity between Hindus and Muslims.
That's when Nusrat Jahan decided to hit back at 'hardliners' who issued a fatwa on her for the same.
She said, ¡°I represent an inclusive India, which is beyond the barriers of caste, creed and religion,¡± she said in a tweet. ¡°As much as I respect all religions, I still remain a Muslim and no one should comment on what I choose to wear.¡±
"Faith is beyond attire and is more about believing and practising the invaluable doctrines of all the religions," Nusrat Jahan tweeted.
TMC MP Mimi Chakraborty extended support to Nusrat Jahan, saying that being Indians is their only identification. "We are Indian and that's our only identification, proud Indian and will be," she tweeted, reacting to Nusrat Jahan's tweet.
Paying heed or reacting to comments made by hardliners of any religion only breeds hatred and violence, and history bears testimony to that.. #NJforInclusiveIndia #Youthquake #secularIndia pic.twitter.com/mHmINQiYzj
¡ª Nusrat (@nusratchirps) 29 June 2019
A Saharanpur-based Muslim cleric criticised Nusrat Jahan for wearing sindoor, calling the practices un-Islamic. He also questioned the parliamentarian's decision to marry a man belonging to Jainism.
One Mufti Asad Kasmi, associated with Madarsa Jamia-Shekh-ul-Hind, was quoted by New Indian Express as saying, ¡°We have come to know through media that she was wearing sindoor and mangalsutra and has married a person belonging to Jainism. She has violated Islam as a Muslim can marry a Muslim only.¡±
"I have got to know that Nusrat is a film actor and people in the cinema do not care about religious practices. They do what they have to," said Mufti Asad Quasmi.
Nusrat Jahan Ruhi and Mimi Chakraborty, who took took oath as members of the Lok Sabha were swarmed by media when they stepped out of Parliament.
The actresses, struggling to make their way out of the House, had to raise their voice at the reporters to not push and give them way so they could pass.
Defending Nusrat's sartorial choice was BJP leader Sadhvi Prachi who said that if a Muslim woman marries a Hindu and wears bindi, bicchwe, mangalsutra, the Muslim clerics call it haraam.
She went on to say, ¡°I feel sorry for their intellect but many Muslim men trap our Hindu daughters in the name of love jihad and ask them to wear burqa, then that is not haram. That is justified for them.¡±
The Bengali actress and newly-elected MP tied the knot with her businessman beau Nikhil Jain in a destination wedding at Turkish town of Bodrum on June 19, 2019.
Nusrat's husband Nikhil is a Kolkata-based entrepreneur with a thriving textile business. The actress, 29, had been the brand ambassador of Nikhil Jain¡¯s textile chain for a couple of years, reports the New Indian Express.
