NCW summons Jawed Habib for spitting on woman’s head

The National Commission for Women (NCW) on Friday asked hairstylist Jawed Habib to appear before it on 11 January in connection with a viral video showing him allegedly spitting on a woman’s head. In a tweet today by the Commission, it said, “Taking note of the incident, @NCWIndia has also sent a notice to Jawed Habib to appear before the Commission in person on January 11 at 12:30 pm for deposition of his statement. @sharmarekha”. In a viral video, hairstylist Jawed Habib was seen using his spit to style a woman’s hair during a workshop. In the video, a woman is seen sitting on the stage on a salon chair while Habib prepares to cut her hair while giving hair care tips. “Hair is dirty. Why are they dirty? Because shampoo has not been used,” he says.

“Listen carefully… If there is a scarcity of water,” Habib continues as he spits on the woman’s head while parting her hair. He can be heard saying “this spit has life” before the video ends.

Meanwhile, people present there could be heard laughing and clapping. However, the woman seemed disturbed by what had happened.

After the video gained virality, the woman in the video came forward to recount the bad experience.

She said, “My name is Pooja Gupta. I run a parlour named Vanshika beauty parlour and am a resident of Baraut. Yesterday I attended a workshop of Jawed Habib sir. There he invited me on the stage to give me a haircut and he misbehaved. He said if there is no water, you can spit. It would be better if I had gone to my streetside barber and got a haircut, rather than going to Habib.”

After facing a huge backlash, Habib said, “I just want to say one thing…these are professional workshops, as in, they are attended by people from within our profession. When these sessions get very long, we have to make them humorous. If you are hurt are, I apologise from the bottom of my heart.”