Purdah, lipstick & a witty Begum

The turmoil in Iran over the hijab is creating ripples worldwide. The matter is primarily about the patriarchal tendency to control what a woman should wear and what she should not. In India, too, the issue has been cropping up time and again. Purdah and ghoonghat are the names given to the dress code imposed on women in the guise of religion and social practices since ages.

The Constituent Assembly, too, was not insulated from this mindset during its meetings. However, there was one woman who, despite her roots in a highly conservative family, had the resilience and wit to face such situations with ease and put people in their place. This bold figure was Begum Qudsia Aizaz Rasul, who belonged to the ruling family of Malerkotla, where observing purdah was mandatory. Qudsia was married at a young age to Nawab Aizaz Rasul, a taluqdar of Sandila in rural UP, where Muslim families observed much stricter purdah than she was used to in Punjab. She came out of purdah at the time of her election to the UP Legislative Council. She was often described as the ‘two-faced Begum’ as she walked openly in Lucknow but stood veiled in public view on her arrival at Sandila.

This daring decision prompted the ulemas to issue a fatwa against her and declare it un-Islamic to vote for a non-purdah woman. The gutsy Qudsia not only carried on with her plans but also won the election by a big margin. Many could not stomach her progress in national politics and launched personal remarks and attacks against her. However, she took them all in her stride and emerged as a towering political leader.

Qudsia was elected to the Constituent Assembly of India in 1947. A fellow Assembly member, on seeing her wearing red lipstick, asked, ‘Why do you paint your lips red?’ She promptly replied, ‘Why do you put red colour on your forehead?’ — earning applause from everyone around. Her wit and dynamism brought her numerous compliments from seniors and colleagues like Maulana Azad, Nehru and Sarojini Naidu. In the Assembly, she demonstrated exemplary strength by playing an instrumental part in creating consensus among Muslims to give up separate electorates and reservation for the sake of an emerging new India.

Later, during her term in the country’s first Rajya Sabha, she was a favourite of the media, which reported, ‘Begum Qudsia Aizaz Rasul has brought grace and colour to the House.’ She never got bogged down by anything and followed her own dress code while performing numerous dominant roles in life. She received many honours, including the Padma Bhushan.