New Delhi: Filmmaker Imtiaz Ali’s remarks on the burqa and purdah have triggered a sharp debate over personal choice, patriarchy and social conditioning, placing the director at the centre of a wider argument on faith, gender and freedom in public life.
Ali, 55, made the comments during a conversation with YouTuber Samdish Bhatia on Unfiltered by Samdish, where the discussion moved from his Partition drama Main Vaapas Aaunga to patriarchy and the ways social practices shape women’s lives. The director said he was uncomfortable with the idea of people describing themselves as “comfortable” in the burqa or purdah, calling such acceptance a sign of social degeneration.
“I don’t like when someone says ‘I am comfortable in my burqa. I am comfortable in my parda’. It’s a degenerated society, if you feel like this, it’s not okay,” Ali said during the interview. He added that such comfort could reflect internalised victimhood, a remark that quickly drew attention across social media platforms.
The statement has divided opinion. Supporters of Ali’s view have argued that he was speaking against patriarchal conditioning and restrictions placed on women’s mobility, dress and visibility. Critics have said the comments risk denying women agency by assuming that those who wear the burqa or observe purdah cannot be making a conscious choice. The debate has also revived a familiar fault line in discussions on veiling: whether such practices should be viewed primarily as cultural coercion, religious expression, personal autonomy or a mixture of all three.
Ali appeared to temper his comments during the same exchange, saying he was not seeking to stop anyone or intrude into personal spaces. “It’s not about stopping someone,” he said, stressing that his broader concern was the decline of moderation in public discourse. He said society needed “basic tolerance” and the ability to disagree without hostility.
The timing of the controversy has amplified attention around the filmmaker, whose Main Vaapas Aaunga was released on June 12. The film, starring Diljit Dosanjh, Naseeruddin Shah, Vedang Raina and Sharvari, is set against the backdrop of the 1947 Partition and centres on memory, displacement and the desire to return to an ancestral home. Ali has been promoting the film through interviews in which he has discussed identity, belonging, religion and the lasting human cost of Partition.
Ali’s cinema has often foregrounded women who challenge expectations or resist social confinement. Jab We Met turned Geet, played by Kareena Kapoor Khan, into one of mainstream Hindi cinema’s most recognisable portraits of female spontaneity and self-direction. Highway examined trauma, captivity and emotional release through the journey of a young woman. Tamasha and Rockstar, though centred on male protagonists, also carried recurring themes of inner conflict, social performance and the search for an authentic self.
The burqa and purdah remarks have therefore been read by many as an extension of Ali’s long-standing interest in personal freedom. Yet the language he used has drawn scrutiny because the politics of veiling remains sensitive across communities and regions. Purdah can refer to physical veiling, gender segregation, domestic seclusion or wider codes of modesty, depending on social context. The burqa, too, carries different meanings for different wearers, ranging from religious observance and family expectation to cultural identity and personal conviction.
Women’s rights advocates have long argued that veiling practices can become instruments of control when imposed by families, communities or state authorities. At the same time, many scholars and activists caution against treating all forms of veiling as evidence of oppression, noting that women may attach their own meanings to dress, modesty and public presence. That tension has shaped court battles, campus disputes, workplace rules and cultural controversies across several countries.
The online response to Ali’s remarks reflected that complexity. Some users praised the director for naming internalised patriarchy and questioning customs that can limit women’s participation in public life. Others said his framing overlooked women who defend the burqa as an expression of faith or identity, and argued that liberation cannot be built on dismissing their stated choices. A third strand of opinion focused on Ali’s clarification, saying his appeal for moderation was more significant than the disputed phrase that drove the controversy.
