Opinion - News Analysis

Muted voices of change

THE WORK done by women's organisations working with Muslim women has, over the last decade, created an environment where they are asking for change. According to Hasina Khan of the Mumbai-based Awaz-e-Niswaan "70 to 80 per cent of women want a change in laws which violate their rights." They want to get rid of the unilateral triple talaq and polygamy, have compulsory registration of marriage and divorce, the right to divorce without paying compensation, custody and equal guardianship of children, and a gender-just nikahnama.

The hurdles to change are, however, enormous. Chief among them is what others call an "atmosphere of intolerance." Women's voices are crushed by the attacks on their community, says Ms. Khan. "Every time there is a (bomb) blast they blame the community." With fingers pointed

at the community, the women find themselves unable to give priority to their rights. And with Muslims under attack, Muslim "leaders" play on their sense of insecurity to silence the voices of change by equating personal laws with Muslim identity, she maintains.

Women's rights cannot be separated from the general political milieu, says Flavia Agnes, a lawyer and activist of the Mumbai-based NGO, Majlis. Events such as last year's Gujarat carnage narrow down the space for a discussion of Muslim women's rights.

Where, then, will the change come from? Danish Khan, news editor, Milligazette, a community paper published from Delhi, says "it should come from within the community" but has "little hope that it will." Muslim leaders, like the members of the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board, are "unrepresentative." They are, according to him, "fanatics who are not willing to listen... They go on about the Muslim identity, but who is saying that they are not Muslim?" With the focus squarely on `identity,' they ignore issues of importance such as health and education or women's rights, he adds.

Two years ago, Ms. Khan attended an AIMPLB conference in Bangalore to discuss reforms in personal law. It was a "wasted trip," she says. Invoking the Quran, the AIMPLB had told Muslim women's groups that their religion gave women their rights. "In which case why are they not implementing them," wonders Ms. Khan.

Outside the community, there is no dialogue on the real needs of Muslims or their women. This, according to Ms. Khan, is because the state believes that religious identity is the only identity and that religious leaders are the only representatives. Sociologist Zarina Bhatti makes the same point. As far as the general public is concerned, she says, "the community is only represented by people with beards and caps. There are other opinions, but they are negated by the media and politicians." Of course, absence of consensus among Muslims is partly to blame, Prof. Bhatti concedes. As a result, issues of personal law and rights of women and children have got entangled in emotive issues of identity, she points out.

But, the question is "is a man a Muslim only because he can divorce his wife with triple talaq, which in any case goes against the stipulations of the Quran," she asks. Personal law is an issue of equal rights — of "human rights" — and has been guaranteed by a secular Constitution and should be enforced, especially when it does not contradict a religion or religious identity, she says.

The question that remains is who will do the enforcing? Or, will anyone be allowed to do it?

A.M.

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