Special Report

The South India Consultative Meet on Muslim women in Bangalore focused on the rights of Muslim women.



The Karnataka State Women’s Commission held a 2-day South India Consultative Meet on Muslim women in the City on March 10 and 11 at Shikshak Bhavan. The Meet was opened by Chief Minister N. Dharamsingh who assured that the Government would address the grievances of the Muslim women. Herein we provide the highlights of the various papers presented at the Seminar, which focused on the various aspects of the issues concerning the Muslim women.



Teesta Setalvad, civil rights activist

Editor, Communalism Combat monthly, Mumbai Communal violence and its impact on Muslim women

We began our activism with the Sati incident in Deorala in Rajasthan in 1987. Very few problems of Muslim women are connected with the Muslim Personal Law. Much more grave threat emanate from sexism aspect of the fascist Hinduism. In Gujarat riots of 2002, nearly 150 Muslim women were victims of brutal sex violence. The Hindu women also took part in it. Babri Masjid demolition was a campaign to insult and demoralize the whole community and Gujarat mayhem was the pinnacle. The fascist tendency is to first create an atmosphere of hate and then it becomes easy to target the specific community in order that others do not speak out against the violence. It is for us to work in the peace time to nip such a campaign in the bud. For this the minority community has to reforge alliance with secular majority. Brutalisation of the gender of the majority community has also to be addressed. Access of Muslim women to the criminal justice system becomes difficult in a communalized atmosphere. I have sympathy for Zahira Shaikh as she does not know what she is doing. But it requires us to address the ills of criminal justice system in the country. There is more the likelihood of witnesses turning hostile in a criminal case which runs for more than two years. There is need for reform in police force and enhanced representation for disadvantaged communities in the force. I do not deny that Muslim women suffer from domestic violence. But there is a tendency not to initiate talk of reform within if the community is being battered and badgered from external sources. It is therefore difficult for Muslim women to speak against the atrocity of the triple talaq. Muslims need to do introspection. Partition fomented competitive communalism. There is need for para-legal training for Muslim women.



Prof. Nazneen Barkath

Ex-Principal, Govt.Women’s College, Madurai Divorce

Islam permits divorce, though strongly disapproves and discourages it. It could be exercised as a matter of necessity but not on whims and fancies. Even if there is a necessity, it should be exercised only after attempts at arbitration and reconciliation. Judicial separation as is being practiced is not allowed in Islam. Cautious approach towards divorce forms the basis of Talaq al Sunnah. Based on the method of Talaq al Hassan, the Government of Pakistan enacted an ordinance in 1961 whereby the divorce shall remain ineffective for 90 days. Husband has to send the notice in writing to the wife and arbitration has to take place before the divorce is effected. A divorce by triple pronouncement is no longer considered final and it is open to the spouses to continue the marriage if reconciliation is brought about between them within the prescribed period. The law was amended even earlier in Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Syria and Jordan.


But in India, the Muslim woman suffers the double disadvantage as men extort dowry and sumptuous dinners from the girl’s parents. Among lower classes divorce and later another marriage becomes a source of earning money.



Mrs. Hasnat Mansur, social activist

Former Principal, Abbaskhan College, Bangalore

Muslim Women’s standing in the holy Quran

Hijab could be interpreted as modest dress rather than barring women from the social intercourse. Even loose garments which do not make the physical angularities prominent could be termed hijab. The Quran gives further concession to older women and says that there could be no objection if they remove the chador. Quran empowered women 1400 years ago by making women partners in inheritance and giving them as much right to seek separation from their husband as is their husband’s right. Why did not the clergy raise an objection for several centuries when the laws in Uttar Pradesh denied the Muslim women right to inheritance in wetlands.


Marriage is central to creation and procreation and equality of the two in this relationship is as essential. But unfortunately all Muslim societies have become pronouncedly patriarchal. Women are kept out of every discourse. The Quranic approach is most direct, exhaustive and positive.



Dr. Suraiya Tabassum

On Health Status and Reproductive Rights of Muslim

Malnutrition, marital problems, aborted fertility, poverty and the inability to control infant mortality, inaccessibility to health services form part of the problems that dog the poor Indian women. Since Muslim share among the poor is disproportionately large, they are more afflicted with the problem. Though female foeticide is not much prevalent among Muslims, the preference for son is a major threat to the well being of the girl child. A greater proportion of girls than boys die in childhood due to discriminatory care of the girl child. It also plays a role in differential access to health care. If a woman did not have sons, she becomes vulnerable to dependence on relatives in her later age. So she tends to have more children till she gets a son. Dowry has become a dehumanizing and exploitative practice in causing physical and mental health of women. Women do not have a part in decision making at homes. Thirty per cent of births occur during the first two years of marriage. This affects women’s nutrition and health status. Men work from sunrise to sunset. But women’s work never ends. Fifty per cent of women in reproductive age suffer from anaemia. Since sanitation is rudimentary in Muslim habitations, the Muslim women suffer from tuberculosis, cancer, respiratory diseases and even AIDS. Religious inhibitions come in the way of seeking help from the Family Planning centers or PHCs.


Education and health system must be made more gender sensitive for these anomalies to be addressed. The research on Muslim women’s status should bring out the commonality of their problem with women from other communities as well as specificity of their problems.



Banu Mushtaq

Advocate and Kannada writer, Hassan

I am a grassroots worker among the women. While it may sound good to say that it is below dignity for Muslim women to accept maintenance from their former husbands, but let us sympathetically consider the fact. I found nearly 50 per cent of Muslim women among sex workers in Hassan. When I enquired into their circumstances, I found that nearly all of them were women who were either divorced or deserted by their husbands and they had no one to care. Social conditions of Muslim families is such that something as abominable as incest is widespread among the Muslims.
Karnataka has accorded 33 per cent reservation to women. But this rule has not been applied to Wakf Board. Women should be given adequate representation in masjid jamaaths so that these bodies are gender sensitive. All Darul Qazas should also have representation of women as female complainants always look for one from their gender to sound their grievances.



Asghar Ali Engineer, Columnist,

Director, Centre for Study of Society and Secularism, Mumbai

There is no single word in the Quran that connotes the inferiority of the women. The verse Arrijalu Qawwamuna alan nisai (Nisa) should be interpreted as Quran exhorting men to stand up for women rather than men having superiority over women. Quran was revolutionary in its approach in its time as society of Makkah was changing rapidly from a tribal society to a center of international finance and trade.


Quranic injunctions are unchangeable but Sharia (Islamic laws) can be creatively interpreted from time to time. This calls for ijtihad (interpreting sharia in the light of the Quran and the traditions of the holy Prophet, peace be upon him). But unfortunately the doors have been slammed shut on ijtihad. Nobody can maintain that no one is qualified to do ijtihad. In the period immediately following the expiry of the holy Prophet, (Pbuh) hundreds of schools of jurisprudence existed. Contemporary jurists interpreted the same verse and the tradition differently in different lands and at different times. This was in accordance with the spirit of the famous dialogue between the Prophet and Muaz bin Jabal, may Allah be pleased with him. It was only after 200 years that four leading imams compiled their opinion in four schools, i.e., Hanafi, Shafii, Maliki and Hambali. However, the interpretation should be informed with a spirit of four key Quranic values of wisdom (himkah), justice (adl), mercy (rahmah) and beneficence (ehsan). When Ms. Benazir Bhutto became the prime minister of Pakistan some people opposed it on the basis of a hadith which purportedly said that ‘any nation that has a woman for its head of state would be destroyed’ Moroccan author Fatimah Mernissi researched on it and found that it was apocryphal. It emerged after 30 years of the death of the holy Prophet and in the backdrop of battle of Jamal.


Women in the Muslim world are slowly asserting and gaining rights. Sixty per cent of the University graduates in Saudi Arabia are women. They are opposing the denial of voting rights and denial of opportunity to stand for elections. Four rounds of dialogue have already taken place between women representatives and the Government.


In Kuwait, the Parliament has voted for women’s right to vote and participate in elections but the Emir of Kuwait has annulled it. The struggle is still on. In Pakistan. Prime Minister Mohammad Ali Bogra took another wife in 1955. At this the Government promulgated a law that the consent of first wife is binding for taking a second wife.


In Jordan the triple talaq (divorce) has been banned even though the predominant majority of the Muslims in that country are Hanafi by maslak.


Even the latest Census by Community report of the Registrar General of India reveals that prevalence of birth control devices by Muslim women is more than the one among Hindu women in at least 14 states of the Union.


In Egypt, Jehan Sadat, wife of slain President Anwar Sadat pressed for a law whereby it would be obligatory for a Muslim husband to buy a house for his wife on marriage. The said law drew sanction from the Quranic verse Faskinuhinna. In the event of the divorce, the house goes to the wife.



Maqbool Ahmed Siraj

Journalist, Bangalore

An overview of the socio-economic situation and its implications on Muslim women’s rights.
Socio-economic realities of the Muslim communities are grim. Poor education, child labour, huddled living and lack of access to sanitation and health presents a bleak picture. Muslim males are forced to take up unskilled professions which yield hardly enough to sustain families. Sharing of small space by children with couples leads to early dawn of marital life and an urge for it while small incomes, large families and scarcity of living space delays its fruition through legitimate means. Economic irresponsibility among lower middle class urban families has emerged as the principal bane of the community. It leads to broken homes, desertions, uncared kids and tendencies injurious for the family life. Outsiders and Arab tourists are lured into marriage with deserted women leading to more anarchic marital scenario. Plight of the Muslim women should not be seen in isolation of the tragic plight of the menfolk and the entire community in general. Marriage is set as the prime goal in the life of a girl. Her upbringing revolves round it. Marriages come at an age when the bodies and mind are not matured for taking the responsibility of motherhood, control over children, etc. Family Counselling Unit of the Bangalore City Police reveals that more than half stove burst cases reported in Mysore Road slums pertain to burning of Muslim women. Dowry is rampant among women which also leads to divorces and domestic violence. Meher is generally denied to women. Dept of Haj organizes orientation programmes for the 40 day pilgrimage but there is no arrangement for counseling for would be spouses who are expected to remain husband and wife for 40 years or more. Nikahs must be held compulsorily inside mosques and they must be registered with mosques as well as some authority to be set up by Wakf Board. (There was demand from the audience that Photographs must be affixed on the marriage register and certificate in all cases.) Family counseling units be set up in all district Police headquarters. Short stay homes are needed for housing the deserted Muslim women and children. Literature needs to be produced in English, Hindi, Urdu and Hindi for would- be spouses and on aspects of civil and criminal law.


Dr. Flavia Agnes of Majlis, Mumbai, Prof. Ravivarma Kumar, advocate, Donna Fernandes of Vimochana, Ms. N. T. Abroo, Mr. Ali Asgar of Cova, Hyderabad, Prof. Nazni Begum, Dr. Sabu George of Women’s Studies Centre also took part in the deliberations. Ms. B. B. Cauvery welcomed the delegates. Commission chairman Philomena Peiris delivered the welcome address.
(This Report has been compiled by Maqbool Ahmed Siraj)

The book “Unequal Citizens: Muslim women in India” by Zoya Hasan and Ritu Menon is an eye-opener on the socio-economic status of Muslim women in India.


The book by Zoya Hasan and Ritu Menon ‘Unequal Citizens: Muslim women in India’, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2004, presents the results of a national survey covering around 10,000 Muslim and Hindu women. The book provides a broad spectrum of investigation into the socio-economic status of Muslim women in India.


Zoya Hasan and Ritu Menon present the results of a national survey covering around 10,000 Muslim and Hindu women. The study revealed a hitherto unknown fact—it established that 26 per cent of educated Muslim women had illiterate husbands.


It is a fact that is further supported by census figures. A majority of the Muslims in India are self-employed—the artisan community, the craftsmen and other such groups. Among the self-employed families, the boys tend to drop out of school at an early age to join their family businesses, while the girls can study.


This is the first such survey of this magnitude, covering the whole country, and obviously therefore the findings deserve attention. But perhaps even more interesting than the results themselves, are the insights that are drawn into the interplay of various factors that determine the conditions of Muslim women’s lives.


Commissioned by the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi, this is a baseline survey that takes a different track. Disputing the commonly held view that Islam is responsible for everything from poverty and unemployment to marriage, divorce, and education, Hasan and Menon argue that the focus on religion as the primary determinant has obscured the importance of other critical factors such as location, class, and positive social development on the status of Muslim women.


Zoya Hasan and Ritu Menon suggest that “a more deliberate engagement with the secular discourses of development and empowerment enables us to address the structural forms of institutionalized inequality that perpetuate social and gender injustice, as well as to look for constructive affirmative action.”

A two-day Mathematics Workshop in Godhra brought together various communities triggering awareness about problems of the masses.


Sadbhav Mission, in collaboration with Rationalist and Humanist Society, Godhra, organized their second Two-Day Mathematics Workshop in Godhra on March 2 and 3 in order to bring about various communities together and arouse awareness about problems of the masses in the district like poverty, education, employment and communalism. The first workshop was held in November 2004 in which 1000 students of 10th standard and 22 teachers had participated. The present workshop was bit subdued, with only 290 students of 9th standard and five teachers.


Dr. Sujaat Vali played the leading role in mobilising students and teachers from Union Iqbal High School, Navrachna High School, Govt. Technical High School, Iqbal Girls High School, and M.E.T. High School. Dr. A.K. Sharma, from IIT Delhi, also visited these schools. Three days prior to the workshop, he and Mr. Yaqoob Khan, an engineer from Valsaad, revived contacts with Govt Arts and Science College. This time, however, college students were busy preparing for exams hence their cooperation in the workshop could not be obtained. Mr. Mukund Bhai Sindhav with his continued efforts to promote scientific thinking provided a conducive atmosphere. Mr. Anwar Kurkur and his friend translated the Sadbhav Mission booklet Mathematics ke Saral Qaide into Gujarati, typeset it and made copies. Mr. Feroze Khan (Lara Hospital) assisted them in various arrangements.


Navrachna High School provided the venue for the workshop, making six of their classrooms and assembly hall available for the purpose. Mr. Suleman Daulti, administrator of the school extended his full cooperation. So did the Principal of Technical High School Mr. Ashwin K. Shukla. IIT Delhi friends Dr. Anamika Sharma, Pawan Kumar, Naveen Kumar, Vivek Sajal, Vishwabandhu Pathak, Ashok Kumar, Gagan Kumar, Anuraj and Deepti Pachauri helped develop tutorial sheets and demonstration experiments.


The students were divided into six groups. Two brilliant colleagues Mr. Salim J. Shaikh and Mr. Kasim H. Dolti from the last workshop, three new friends Mr. Altaf Sujela, Mr. Sahal Saiyed and Mr. R.F. Shikari from different schools and I took the classes turn by turn. In between we initiated discussion on masses in different countries of the world. That enthused lot of interest. Second day we took up trigonometry with several examples of periodic events like rising of the sun, weather cycle, elections, heart beats with different periods of repetition and then introduced trigonometric functions and utility of tan theta in estimating heights of distant objects. Towards the end we had a 90-minute session on social issues such as Sufi-saint movement, mass movement for freedom, prejudice, superstition and scientific temper.


It was a heartening experience. Students participated in every activity with great enthusiasm. Their inquisitiveness and interest to learn about the world were deep. Most of these children come from very modest backgrounds and may not continue education beyond tenth grade. That thought pained us deeply. We felt we were far far short of what we could have done to them. On Dr. Vali’s suggestion we have decided to hold a one day meeting of activists and like minded people in May 2005 to build the network and chalk out our program for the year.


Prof. V. K. Tripathi teaches physics at IIT, Delhi and edits Sadbhavana Patrika.