Is This A Rida?

(Photo of the Qutbi Bohra Princess, Shehzadi Dr. Tahera Qutbuddin, giving a lecture in an American University in a chic Islamic style garment).

Dear Mr. Qutbuddin,

       Your daughter, Her Highness Shehzadi (princess) Dr. Tahera wrote in a chapter on the customs and practices of mumineen titled “The Da’udi Bohra Tayyibis: Ideology, Literature, Learning and Social Practice” in Farhad Daftary’s A Modern History of The Ismailis. In it she wrote the following:

“The Bohra mode of attire is similarly a mélange of the Islamic and the Indian. Women wear the Islamically mandated veil (which they call rida’) outside the home, comprised of a full-length skirt (lenga or ghaghra) and a triangular garment (parr or pardi) covering the head and bosom down to the hips; the parr has a flap that is sometimes used to cover the face. The rida’ has evolved into its present form in the last 30 years or so; earlier, Bohra women wore different versions of the veil………The wearing of traditional community dress (called qawmi libas or libas-i anwar) is de riguer at Bohra religious an social gatherings and is encouraged at all times. The emphasis is of a dual nature: observation of Islamic law and preservation of Bohra cultural identity. According to the legal or cultural nature of the directive, there are gradations in the required dress code. The veil, as mentioned earlier, is required for women since it is considered mandated by Islamic law.” (pg. 346-47)

Clearly what Dr. Tahera is wearing in this picture from a public talk that she gave in front of American students last year in March 2013 (almost a year before Aqa Moula’s RA demise) is not a rida’ (picture above). When she writes that women in the Bohra community wear the mandated rida’, and she defines it as a full length skirt and triangular garment (parr or pardi) above with a flap, then what she is wearing is definitely something else. What she is wearing is a skirt, with what appears to be a buttoned jacket (non triangular) top, and a headscarf which her interviewer marked was ‘loose.’ While her chosen garment is definitely Islamic and in line with Islamic principles, and there is no doubt that she is proud to wear it as her identity marker, the question remains on why did she choose not to wear the rida when it was a marker of Dawoodi Bohra identity? If you are the successor of Burhanuddin Moula RA why would you mandate one dress for all Bohra women (as is Princess Dr. Tahera’s words) but not hold the princess to the same standards? Are the elite allowed to wear what they want as long as it is Islamic? Are all Qutbi Bohra women encouraged to wear any Islamic styled garment that they like? Are you and Princess Dr. Tahera deliberately moving away from Burhanuddin Moula’s RA rida and creating a new Islamic styled women’s garment exclusive to Qutbi Bohra women? Thank you for reading this and I hope you are having a wonderful day. If you could take the time to answer these questions, I am sure many things would become clearer to people about your agendas and core philosophies with your faith and how they are different than the previous directives of the Dawoodi Bohras. Your visions and new policies regarding cultural dress and mandated clothing, especially for women, are of great interest. Many thanks.

Sincerely,

Amatullah Sunilwala

UK