Denied an Auto Ride, Told to ‘Go to Pakistan’: The Daily Injustices Against Young Muslim Indians

New Delhi: Hanan, a 23-year-old master's student at Jawaharlal Nehru University, proudly wears a hijab. She says she has observed that friendships and self-esteem often take a hit due to the prejudices held by others. "When you're perceived as 'different', it's challenging to shield yourself from the biases of society," she adds.

Hanan has noticed such prejudices impacting people in both formal and informal settings. People frequently harbour preconceived notions about Muslims based on their appearance alone. She has personally experienced hostility directed at her in various situations, including with judges in competitions and with job recruiters. Additionally, she has observed that teachers sometimes overlook the presence of Muslim students in their classrooms.

All these experiences have had a detrimental impact on the self-esteem of Muslim youth, causing many to withdraw from public spaces.

In 2022, Led By Foundation conducted research to determine if a bias exists in the hiring of Muslim women. The results revealed that there is a distinct "hiring bias" against Muslim women in India in entry-level job opportunities, resulting in a 50% lower probability of securing such positions compared to their non-Muslim counterparts.

Watch | Study Shows Evidence of Bias Against Hiring Muslim Women

To address these deeply rooted fears and anxieties within the Muslim community, this author interviewed 30 individuals, all of whom belong to  the Muslim community. The goal was to gain an understanding of the extent of discrimination they face and its repercussions on their physical and mental well-being. The respondents were asked five questions, over the phone and emails:

a) Could you share your personal anecdotes, feelings, or experiences that magnify your fears and anxieties as someone who is 'visibly' Muslim?

b) What concerns or fears do you harbour for your family members who are easily identifiable as Muslim by their appearance?

c) Have you ever considered removing your hijab or shaving your beard due to concerns related to Islamophobia? If yes, what were your reasons?

d) Have you encountered discrimination, prejudice, or hostility because you are a 'visible' Muslim? Please elaborate on your experiences.

e) What are your fears concerning your safety and well-being when you are out in public as a 'visible' Muslim?

Hanan was one of these 30 individuals.

Afsheen, 21, one of the respondents, shared some interesting insights into the subject of prejudice. It has always been hard for her to answer questions about the hijab. She feels such questions sound more like a debate and an interrogation rather than general curiosity.

One of her colleagues had asked her whether "hijabi" women as portrayed in the propagandist movie The Kerala Story is true.

Also read: ‘The Kerala Story’ Is a Propaganda Film That Thrives on Shock Value

On numerous occasions, she had been asked (which rather felt like an interrogation) why she wears the hijab and whether her family forced her to wear it. Unfortunately, this is the situation faced by most women respondents who wear the hijab.

Afsheen said she had to remove her hijab due to anxiety when asked by the male staff members at the CUET exam centre. Despite having been searched by a female staff member in a confined space, she had to remove it again in front of the men out of the fear of missing her exam.

Nineteen-year-old Zeyan, a student, was compelled to shave off his beard after he was asked by the principal of his institution to write an apology letter for growing a beard. He had refused, but eventually he had to do it at the advice of his parents.

Naima*, 19, was also asked to remove her hijab as she was “too young” to conform to religious duties, according to the principal.

Around 10 to 12 respondents, including this author, were advised by their parents to either remove the hijab or shave off their beard, because it is unsafe to be "seen" as a Muslim. This indicates the extent of fear considering their children’s safety, driven by the impact of Islamophobia, in the minds of today’s Indian Muslim parents.

While several non-Muslim people believe that Muslim women are 'forced' to wear the hijab, many of the respondents told The Wire that they were advised by their parents to remove it out of concern for their safety.

Experiencing trauma for appearance and identity

Life in New Delhi, away from her family in Kashmir, has not been easy for Maryam*, aged 21.

She had come to Delhi to pursue her higher education. Surviving in Delhi requires a lot of travelling and commuting. As a woman who wears the hijab, Maryam was denied an auto ride by a driver last year and was told “to go to Pakistan”. This incident has been unpleasantly unforgettable for her.

This is not an isolated incident. Around 10 to 12 respondents said they have experienced aggression and hate in real life and on social media. For instance, Zeyan had to face a lot of challenges at his high school where people used slurs generally associated with Muslims to refer to him.

Similarly, others encountered aggressive interrogation, debate, slurs and microaggression in public places, often at the hands of their “friends” and colleagues, as well as strangers. All of this has taken an emotional toll. Moreover, the prevalence of hate speeches and calls for violence against Muslims have affected their mental health in various ways.

Muslim children – who do not bear any markers of being Muslim – are also not being spared by individuals discriminating against the community. For instance, there was a recent incident reported where a teacher asked all students to thrash a fellow student, because he was Muslim. This incident happened at Neha Public School, Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh.

The student's video went viral on August 25. One can only imagine the amount of trauma this child will suffer.

Prabhjyot Kaur, a trauma-focused therapist, told The Wire: "Marginalised or Muslim children who are facing aggression of any kind, their brain chemistry gets permanently altered, which is not conducive for a healthy brain development."

"Direct aggression can be countered and fought against but it is these microaggressions people face daily that make a deep psychological impact on Muslims,” said Hanan. “These are so subtle that you cannot put a finger on it, it's only you who knows it's there and most likely it will be dismissed by others as us imagining these biases. I feel like we often talk a lot about these direct attacks, insults and aggressions but microaggressions are the ones that are continuous and insidious."

Also read: How Are India’s Muslims Feeling?

Fear and anxiety

At times, Hanan experiences the fear of losing her loved ones to a violent mob, rather than fearing for her own safety. The anxiety over extended humiliation, which may happen in the form of sexual assault or harassment, is much worse than the fear of getting killed because of her identity.

All of the respondents expressed tangible fears and anxieties in one way or another. Not one person’s responses were free from any mention of anxiety. Most of the people were in fear of being mob-lynched, killed, discriminated against and sexually assaulted.

All of the 20 female respondents expressed the fear of being sexually assaulted, raped and harassed.

Many respondents also conveyed that even though they do not fear for their own life, they fear for their family members and friends becoming victims of violence.

Zainab S. Qazi, 21, a Delhi University student, told The Wire, “My father has a beard and he travelled to our hometown via train, right after four men were killed by the railway police man. I couldn't sleep the entire night.”

Another 20-year-old DU student, Dania Siddiqui, said, “No matter how much I muster my strength, there is always a deep-rooted fear of being attacked in the public because of my "visible" Muslim identity.”

Some respondents, who are not visibly Muslim, said they had wanted to wear the hijab or grow a beard but ultimately decided against it due to rising Islamophobia in India.

“To be very honest, as someone who will be starting her hijab journey, I don’t see myself doing it for anyone else but for Allah and myself. I see the hijab as a symbol of empowerment. I do understand that I'll become an “easy target” as a visible Muslim woman,” said Areeba Abrar, 19, an undergraduate student.

“I fear for the year to come. I fear that I may encounter more friends who are or have been Hindu nationalists or supporters of ideologies that could potentially bring violence to my doorstep. I fear every time I step out, as does my family because I am the only visibly Muslim man in my family and locality. I frequent the masjid nearby,” said Imran*, 27, who works as a travel consultant.

Nida, 20, fears that someday she might have to make calls for justice for her family members' lives, go out on streets and protest against the violence done to them.

Also read: ‘Won’t Look Good for Business’: Muslim Women Face Workplace Discrimination for Wearing Hijab

What do mental health professionals have to say?

Kaur believes that addressing the issue of impact on the mental health of Muslims due to Islamophobia is extremely important. The consequences of hate crimes are grave in the bigger picture. “We might not realise it because it does not seem enough to shake us into action, but it can lead to a bunch of issues for any Muslim person,” she said.

She outlined two kinds of consequences of Islamophobia on the mental health of Muslims: Direct exposure to trauma which leads to stress, disorders, suicide ideation and inability to cope with fear, and vicarious traumatisation in which people witnessing violence will be looped into cycles of stress, without any release.

In these cases, the likelihood of post-traumatic stress disorder increases. Such a state also determines a Muslim person’s interpersonal relationships.

Kaur’s Muslim clients had expressed their hopelessness due to the indifference of the majority, especially those who are their friends. This indifference adds to their stress, she said. This hopelessness is not individual, but collective.

“I am a religious minority as well, but there is no way I would imply to “completely” understand what the Muslim community is going through, but I am familiar with it, because it has happened to my community in the past. What I do is, try to hold up a safe space and create a sense of safety. A space where they don’t feel the need to mask their fear. Especially when Muslims go to their colleges, offices or universities and have to pretend that everything is okay. I am not the expert of someone’s narrative, they are the expert. I am just holding up a space which can become a medium of discourse for their narrative,” she added.

Kaur said she carries distaste for any kind of invalidation, dismissal or immediate solutions. She added that, “personal is political.”

“Anyone who chooses to believe that the realm of psychology is apolitical and must be neutral cannot be more wrong. One cannot leave their beliefs outside of a therapy door. Dismissing political experiences, especially in times of polarisation and violence, would be a disservice to the entire field,” she noted.

She said that this fear is something which can affect the entire Muslim community psychologically as well as physiologically, especially “visible” Muslims.

“Visible Muslims are constantly punished for their self-expression. The majority is trying to inhibit what a person’s self expression should be and that gives rise to so many interrelated issues like low self esteem, lack of motivation, cycles of low mood. Capacity to do so many things narrows, which needs to be taken into account.”

Dr. Ruksheda Syeda, a psychiatrist based in Maharashtra, told The Wire that the news of violence makes Muslims more vulnerable. “Fear of violence can impact behaviour and emotions of Muslims. In addition, it can also impact their decisions related to where they live or where they work.”

Dr. Syeda has dealt with Muslim clients who were not comfortable expressing their religious identity in a public place. They have stopped praying outside due to threats of violence. She has helped such clients with diagnosis, counselling and therapy. She has also helped them with creating practical plans on how to face inevitable events such as going outside their homes.

“Even though there is no statistical evidence which suggests an increase in mental health issues of Muslims due to Islamophobia, it would not be wrong to assume that they have indeed increased. It is important that such studies are undertaken,” she suggested.

“Everyone has heterogeneous experiences. One person’s experience would not be similar to someone else, especially when their religious, gender or caste identity is different from the other.”

*Names of some of the respondents have been changed to protect their identity.

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