On 22nd May, Indian boxer Nikhat Zareen won the world boxing championship against Thailand’s Jutamas Jitpong. In a regular country, the media would celebrate this win and ask her questions about her preparations, about her future goals and how she feels about such a moment.

But we're not living in a regular country. We're living in India.

The first thing Indian journalists will do, is ask her about her religion. Indian "journalists" who are essentially stooges of the government and an extension of the right wing regime we're currently living under, have taken it upon themselves, to ask Nikhat about her opinion on the hijab? Because of course, every Muslim needs to prove their nationality to this country of progressively growing rabid anti-Muslim, right wing extremists. And of course, the farther a Muslim goes from their Muslim identity, the more Indian they become. Everybody knows you cannot be Muslim and Indian at the same time, these identities, in the eyes of the Hindu right win bigot, are mutually exclusive; and that's is exactly the kind of audience mainstream Indian media is peddling to.

Not only is Nikhat being put in this weird position where she's being asked questions that would ultimately end up overshadowing her achievements, her words are also being twisted to suit the godi media's Islamophobic narrative. It's no surprise that Barkha Dutt was one of the journalists who asked Nikhat such questions. In her tweet, she quotes Nikhat Zareen saying, "I don't believe in hijab" but here's what the boxer actually said:

"I don't wear hijab" = "I don't believe in Hijab"?

It's one thing to ask questions laced with Islamophobia, but it's the absolute epitome of deceit to then misquote the person you were interviewing. If it were any other journalist, I'd give them the benefit of the doubt or let it pass as a lapse in judgement, but this is Barkha Dutt. The same Barkha Dutt who claimed to "respect" Zaira Wasim's choice of leaving the film industry, but made a huge outcry about "indoctrination of religious conservatism" nonetheless. From patronizing a child for her career choice to misquoting a boxer about her religious beliefs, Barkha Dutt has sure come a long way.

Meanwhile, right wing extremist "students" of Mangalore University are protesting outside their campus because their college has failed to implement the High Court guidelines banning the hijab.

Next time, invite Sachin Tendulkar, and ask him about his janeu, okay?

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