Well, what connects Mohammad Shami, Irrfan Pathan, Mohammad Kaif, apart from the fact that they’re cricketers who have time and again made India proud at the international level? Along with Fatima Sana Sheikh [actress of Dangal and Chachi 420 fame], they have been at the receiving end of criticism at the hands of Islamic clerics and perverted bigots, who for godforsaken reasons troll them for stuff that in today’s world, completely normal and cool. Who can think that things like celebrating your daughter’s birthday, reveling in one’s own beauty, embracing a symbol of another culture like a Muslim tying a rakhi, or even playing chess with your own son would be a sin? Some Muslim bigots would, and if you don’t believe me, then see this:-
These trolls never cease to amaze us with their brain insolvency and the ridiculous logic they use in defending their diktats. From giving absolutely weird statements to overpromoting and in-a-way enforcing Burqa and Naqab, hailing them as ‘true symbols of feminism’ [which is without doubt hailed by the so called liberal community of the world] But there is another facet to this nonsense, and that’s both ironic and murky. They are the Dress Nazis.
Dress Nazis? Yes, as I can’t find a better term for such idiots in our vast grammar. They, like those cantankerous aunts, can neither be happy themselves, nor will let anyone else live in peace. Led unequivocally by Islamic bigots, these dress Nazis hate anything, that is in their language, provocative and appealing. We’ve heard enough of that when these folks blame the victims of rape, haven’t we?
The same happened with Fatima Sana Sheikh, and now Mithali Raj, who led a team of brave Indian women to a historic final at the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup, which they lost narrowly to England, is at their receiving end of their regressive and mind numbing jokes.
Here is the post which led to a bout of incessant trolling, if I may call that in civilized terms, just because Mithali Raj chose to wear a dress, that is known in fashion terminology as a ‘spaghetti strap’ :-
However, with this post, there is a catch. This time, it’s not our usual, brain dead Muslim bigots, who, as Dress Nazis have trolled her for her apparently ‘provocative’ dress. This time, it’s surprisingly and ashamedly, the right wing Twitter users, who are already notorious as ‘Bhakts’, ‘Sanghi’ Trolls, ‘Modi’s agents’ and the list goes on. When Mithali Raj posted the pic, these very ‘Bhakts’ without thinking, pounced upon her calling her names, and suggesting her to follow some ‘sanskaars’.
For your kind information, I’m a ‘bhakt’ as well as far as my political inclinations are concerned. In what sense, is Mithali Raj’s dress indecent? She was not at a formal event, meeting any dignitary. It was an all-girls-group selfie.
Don’t the trolls have better things to do? Do we want to stoop to the levels Muslim bigots or some ‘Cleavage Obsessed’ journalists of the newspaper ‘The Times of India’?
Who gives these Sanskaari trolls a right to slut shame Mithali Raj – a woman who has time and again made India proud with her superb performances, and is probably on the same lines as Sachin Tendulkar in women’s cricket. Who gives these Sanskaari trolls a right to slut shame any woman.
If we claim to fight against bigotry, and regressive ideologies and moral policing as done by some Muslim Bigots routinely over social media, but act in the same way in certain situations, like in the Mithali Raj Case, then we lose our moral superiority over them.
Besides, such incidents provide ammunition to the very people we are fighting against in order to protect our nation from being enslaved once again by another poisonous, imperialist ideology. It’s time we grow up and focus on issues that actually concern us as Indians, like the nation hating liberals or the imminent threat of the ideology being cultivated at elite universities such as JNU, not some spaghetti strap at a photo shoot.