Nasheed’s wife Laila Ali’s half-veil and the Vim and vigour in the Muslim democracies

The Indian sub-continent is in ferment, make no mistake. Among the biggest changes has been the peaceful transition of power, from the dictatorship of Abdul Maumoon Gayyoom of the Maldives to Mohammed Nasheed, a former Amnesty International "prisoner of conscience" in the island country last month.

Just a few days after Nasheed concluded his trip to India, on 27th December, thousands of Pakistanis converged on Garhi Khuda Baksh in the Larkana district of Pakistan, mourning the death of Benazir Bhutto. On 28th December, (as Israeli jets pounded the Gaza strip, killing 280 people including hundreds of civilians), results from an unprecedented election in Kashmir showed that all three regions in the state -- Hindu, Muslim and Buddhist -- had voted for change and accountability. On 29th December, as Bangladesh goes to the polls, the army lives up to its promise of ending its two-year-old backing of a caretaker government and paving the return of one of the two matriarchs, Khaleda Zia or Sheikh Hasina.

So when Nasheed came to India last week, on his first visit abroad as president, to reaffirm the Maldives' special relationship with India, he was received at the President's banquet in Rashtrapati Bhawan by a carefully selected audience that included the two major Kashmiri leaders, Ghulam Nabi Azad of the Congress and Farooq Abdullah of the National Conference, K. Rahman Khan, deputy chairman of the Rajya Sabha and Sayeeda Hamid of the Planning Commission. Vice-President Hamid Ansari was a given invitee.

Clearly, there had been an attempt to bring before the top leadership of the Islamic Republic of the Maldives, a range of modern and progressive Indian Muslims, successfully participating in the democratic framework.
It was interesting how several of the assembled Indians sought to reintroduce themselves to the Maldives, incredulous that it was such a small country ("with 320,00 people it is the size of a district in India," said several), that the Maldivians had carried out a peaceful election last month, and most interesting of all, that it was an Islamic republic, but with a brand of Islam so different from those practised in India.

One Indian Muslim asked about the piece of chiffon or silk that was clipped to the back of the hair of the assembled Maldivian women, including Laila Ali, the wife of Mohammed Nasheed. It was the half-veil, I explained, part of the formal attire worn by Maldivian women, which includes a tight-fitting gown with a broad collar that reveals rather than covers the open neck. I pointed out that Maldivian women do wear black scarves that cover their heads, but dont really cover their faces in purdah.
So what kind of Muslims are these, asked Farooq Abdullah wonderingly. Ah, he replied, answering his own question, the Maldivians are seafarers, open to outside influences and to the rest of the world. That's why they're so different.

That sentiment, that there are actuallly several Islams, has been reinvigorated over the last few days of the year : Bangladesh, a people's republic with Islam as its state religion, goes to the polls on Monday, the Islamic republic of Pakistan mourns the death of one of its foremost leaders who struggled to push the democratic envelope and Kashmir, predominantly Muslim, elects mainstream parties to govern and deliver the state. In the South Asian melting pot, the many faces of democracy adds vim and vigour to the Islamic faith. (from livemint.com)