Suraiya Tabassum is a Delhi-based researcher and is actively involved in Muslim women’s issues. She is the author of ‘Waiting for the New Dawn: Muslim Women’s Perceptions of Muslim Personal Law and its Practices’ (New Delhi: Indian Social Institute, 2004). In this interview with Yoginder Sikand she speaks about her work. How did you get involved in working on Muslim women’s issues?

After finishing my Ph.D. from Jawaharlal Nehru University, I joined the Indian Social Institute, Delhi, as a researcher in the Institute’s women’s unit, which is where I worked on a project on Muslim women’s perceptions of Muslim Personal Law, which has now been published as a book. Actually, the research director of the Indian Social Institute, Dr. Fernando Franco, asked me to take up this project. Initially, I was hesitant to do so. Some of my friends cautioned me not to take it up. They said I was too young to speak about such a complicated subject. However, my father insisted that I should go ahead. He said that this was something that I owed to the community. And that is how I started reading the available literature on Islamic law.

How do you think your research can influence policy making or social attitudes?

This is a question that I always ask myself. How are the people whom I study, who give me so much of their time and love and who relate to me their stories, going to benefit from my writings? Generally, what happens is that social scientists produce voluminous tomes that gather dust on the shelves of libraries and do not make any impact on society. The problem is how to make academic work influence social reality, how to produce literature that is geared to social change. I have received some positive responses to my book, but I will not say it has been successful unless it actually helps usher in the “New Dawn” that the title of the book refers to.

What are the main arguments of the book?

The book looks at how Muslim women themselves perceive Muslim Personal Law. It highlights the fact that some aspects of the Muslim Personal Law, as it exists today in India, are not a true reflection of the intention of the Quran. For instance, unrestricted polygamy or triple divorce in one sitting. I have also tried to show that despite the fact that the Quran provides a range of rights to Muslim women, many Muslim women are simply unaware of these.

What are your views on the Muslim Personal Law Board, which sees itself as the sole authority in these matters?

I respect the ulama on the Board, but I must say that, in some ways, the Board has not been fair to women. It is no use simply proclaiming that Islam provides adequate rights to women and not do anything to stop the flagrant violation of women’s rights in the name of Islam.

How do see the role of the women wh.o are at present members of the Board?

Some of these women do highlight women’s rights and concerns, but, on the whole, the women are controlled and marginalised by the male-dominated Board. As a result, they cannot effectively assert themselves and their views are often not heard.

What exactly do you mean by a gender-sensitive understanding of Islam?

The point I want to make is that women’s rights are basic human rights, and these have to be protected. As I see it, the Quran speaks about the fundamental equality of women and men. However, the vast majority of Muslim women in India have little or no knowledge of their Quranic rights. The Board should do something about this, because at the grassroots it is almost invisible.

To come back to a point that you made about gender-just understandings of Islamic law. Do you see any signs of that emerging from the madrasas?

There are today a number of writers who are indeed arguing for gender justice from within a broad Islamic paradigm. However, I do not see this sort of perspective emerging from the madrasas as such. On the whole, the madrasas remain cut off from the world, and their students and teachers have little knowledge of what is happening in the wider society.

In recent years a number of girls’ madrasas have come up in different parts of India. Do you see them playing an important role in developing gender-just understandings of Islam?

I think girls’ madrasas are a good thing, in a sense. At least in this way girls will gain an understanding of the Quran for themselves. Who knows, they may even go on to challenge deeply rooted patriarchal understandings of religion. However, I think that many of these girls’ madrasas do not teach Islamic law from the perspective of gender justice. The stress is more on the duties of a wife, and the Quranic message of gender equality is generally missed out.

(Suraiya Tabassum can be reached at suraiya@ifesindia.org)

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