The debate on hijab, jeans, and other clothing

 The debate on hijab, jeans, and other forms of clothing on campuses is a bit bizarre. I have taught at many universities in Pakistan and have met students who wore jeans, hijab, shalwar kameez etc on campus. Those students (male and female) excelled if they paid attention in class, did their readings and wrote good assignments. It did not matter what clothes they were wearing but what mattered was the content of their work.

Some of my brightest students wore hijab. Many other really bright students wore jeans. Clothing choices have NO RELATION to intellectual output. I am equally opposed to judging women  for wearing hijab or wearing jeans. What young women choose to wear is their personal matter and it is not for university administrators or society to control. We should stop obsessing about what women wear and focus more on the content they have to offer.

Finally, we really ought to be discussing the declining quality of education in our schools and universities. Instead, we are being forced into stupid cultural wars over women's clothing. This is a weapon of mass distraction being used to divert our attention from the rising fees and the academic crisis engulfing Higher Education, including the crisis faced by medical students. We should focus on these crucial issues rather than fixating on what women are wearing. Remember, if we do not pose the right questions, we will never find the right answers.

Ammar Ali Jan