Headlines
Muslim women must press for their rights
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By Firoz Bakht AhmedWhen her parents asked her to wear a "burqa" (veil) while attending
classes at the Jamia Millia Islamia in Delhi, Rubina refused to comply
with the demand. She was barred from going to the university and sat at
home washing dishes.
Barely 16, Safia, a brilliant Class 10
student, was on the warpath against her parents who had fixed her
marriage with a man almost triple her age. Safia, who aspired to be a
doctor, had no option but to discontinue her studies despite being a
topper in her school.
Fauzia, a graduate from Delhi University's
upmarket Lady Shri Ram College, joined a computer programming course.
Her parents asked her to marry not the boy of her choice and she
committed suicide.
These three examples are just the tip of the
iceberg as abject illiteracy for various reasons among Muslim women lies
at the root of the endemic backwardness of the community at large.
After the debilitating trauma of the sub-continent's vivisection,
Muslims struck to the traditional forms of education in a futile bid to
retain the very vitals of their religion, drawing flak from religion as
well as secular world. That's why we don't have many Fatima Biwis, Najma
Heptullahs, Shabana Azmis and - well, the list is too small!
Even
in the new millennium, the haplessness of Indian Muslim women continues
at the same rate. In most of the rustic areas and even in the urban
settlements the rate of literacy among Muslim women is as low as 90 per
cent.
Muslim women in India are also handicapped owing to the
dictates of Muslim Personal Law that is not scriptural in nature and the
conservative ulema have further complicated the issues by interpreting
them in a very orthodox manner.
The inherent weakness of
neglecting one half of the community has, over the years, taken its toll
on the Muslim community. Today, there are only a few girls in the
community who are educated ones. Muslim girls' lot is reduced to that of
a prisoner without parole according to Fehmida Riyaz, a globally
acclaimed Pakistani poetess.
One has heard Muslim men casting the
decree of talaq on matters like the favourite dish, the colour of the
suit worn by women or simply sharing the responsibility to look after a
small child. Talaq-e-Bidat is the one that is ordained in one sitting.
Talaq-e-Sharia is the one that aims at spacing the entire process over a
period of three months so that frayed tempers on both the sides are
cooled down resulting in the rejuvenation of matrimonial link again. It
is Talaq-e-Bidat that has been the real culprit behind breaking of many
families.
Prophet Mohammed abhorred divorce. Even a Muslim woman
can seek divorce from her husband, but nevertheless, such cases are far
and few. If her husband refuses to grant her divorce, she can go to a
law court and obtain a decree in her favour. This may seem to place her
at a disadvantage in comparison to her husband, and it may be asserted
that this implies the inequality of rights, as between husband and wife.
The
bane of Muslim women is that time and again, they are dragged in one
controversy or another. Be it the debate of Muslim women to be allowed
to pray inside the mosques or the Shah Bano imbroglio or the case of the
young Ameenas being "exported" to the Arab Sheikhs, the politicians as
well as the clerics try to eke out political mileage out of it. No one
is worried about their dwindling literacy figures and the problem of
their uplift. The Muslim fundamentalists throughout the world and more
prominently in Muslim dominated states are trying to make Muslim women
faceless and nameless.
Quite interestingly, rights of women in
Islam are umpteen as we see in the notable reforms effected out by
Prophet Mohammed, who restricted unlimited plurality in the matter of
wives, discouraged divorce, forbade female infanticide and disposal of
widows as part of the deceased man's possessions. Moreover, he
established a law of inheritance for women, secured to wives the right
to mehr (dower), enjoined kind treatment towards female slaves and at
the same time promised religious favours as a reward to those who helped
to support widows and orphans. The Prophet abhorred the announcement of
divorce. It is the Muslim men who are not following their prophet's
dictates.
It is high time that Islamic laws were interpreted and
understood in the right perspective and progressive order to do away
with discrimination based on distinction by the present day ulema.
Prophet Mohammed made no distinction between men and women when it came
to their rights.
(Firoz Bakht Ahmed is an educator, social
activist and the grand nephew of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. The views
expressed are personal. He can be contacted at
[email protected])