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MUSLIM WOMEN IN INDIAN SOCIETY
Asghar Ali Engineer
(Secular Perspective March 16-31, 07)
Today is 8th March, the women’s day, a day which women celebrate as a day of their
empowerment and a day of their rights. As I read in newspapers about achievements of
women I painfully remember the plight of Muslim women in India, their lack of
empowerment, their grinding poverty, their illiteracy and various restrictions imposed on
them by their parents and husbands in every day life.
When I deliver lectures on rights of women in Islam, participants invariably ask me about
actual plight of women in Muslim society today. I have to do lot of explaining the
reasons of their sad plight. There are certain factors for which Muslims cannot be blamed
like poverty. But there are certain factors for which Muslims have to own responsibility
like imposing restrictions, which have nothing to do with Islam. These restrictions are
rooted more in social customs and traditions of the past but legitimised in the name of
Shari’ah.
Muslim women are suffering both from internal and external oppression. Muslim men
practice what they themselves believe is Islamic and oppress their women and refuse to
entertain any thought of change. Many educated Muslim women thus start believing there
can be no liberation within Islam and seek their freedom through secular laws. I conduct
workshops for rights of Muslim women and when they listen to what is written in Qur’an,
they say they never thought Qur’an liberates them. They thought Islam enslaves them.
Thus those who attend our workshops become activists for their Islamic rights.
Some problems Muslim women faces are of social nature and are common to women of
all religions in India. All women face problem of social conservatism as they are reduced
to secondary to men. Men are thought to be bread winner and decision maker across
religions in India. But only difference is that among Hindus this situation is fast changing
at least in urban areas. Women are becoming self-sufficient and, in some cases, also
decision makers. But situation is not so bright as far as Muslim women are concerned.
Non-Muslims generally think Muslim women are oppressed and face many restrictions.
This is largely true but matter is much more complex. There are reasons for Muslim
women facing such odds in India. Mostly Muslims are artisans and self -employed and
sociologically speaking they have restricted world -view and live in their own universe.
Then there are those Muslims who live in rural areas and are engaged as agricultural
labourers and related operations. They tend to be even more conservative.
These sections of society do not know what is written in Qur’an or hadith, much less
what are problems with hadith or different schools of law. For them what imam of their
masjid says is Allah’s hukm (injunction) and must be followed else, they will be confined
to jahannam (hell). The imam of the mosque also comes from poor family and has, in
most cases, very limited knowledge of theology and Islamic Shari’ah. His ‘fatwas’ are
based on ignorance. The ‘fatwa’ issued by the imam of village mosque in case of Imrana
(that she should marry her father-in-law who raped her) had absolutely no basis in
Shari’ah. The media also tends to give undue publicity to such matters.
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Thus it is important to understand role of society as much as that of religion. Women are
oppressed not so much by religion as by society. In order to bring about change in the
plight of Muslim women it would be equally necessary to bring about change in socioeconomic conditions of Muslims in India. If Muslims remain poor and illiterate, it will be
very difficult to improve conditions of Muslim women.
Awareness for change
It is also necessary to understand that things are not totally stagnant on Muslim women’s
front. An educated middle class is emerging among Indian Muslims – though still small –
which is well aware of changing society and need for change among Muslim women. The
educated Muslim women exposed to democratic politics, electronic and print media, are
becoming aware of their rights and no longer prepared to accept what is being imposed
on them in the name of religion.
In last one decade there have been many positive indications of change. A group of
Muslim women developed a standard nikah nama (marriage contract) and forced the
Muslim personal Board to adopt it. Though the Board did not adopt it as it is, it did
respond to this demand and developed its own nikahnama. Is not very satisfactory to
women but nevertheless the process of change has started.
It must be said that Board’s entire functioning is reactive rather than proactive. I must say
it is incapable of being pro-active as it is busy defending medieval inheritance rather than
re-think Islam like Muhammad Abduh, Fazlur Rehman, Ali Shariati and many others.
They defend riwayat (tradition) rather than use ijtihad (assert intellectual capacity to
reinterpret and re-think issues). Today when world is undergoing drastic changes, simply
repeating, defending and stagnating will create discord between Qur’anic Islam and
Shari’ah Islam on one hand, and Islamic Shari’ah and modern world, on the other.
Anyway Muslim Personal Law Board changes or not, women are not going to wait
indefinitely. They are already on the move. Some Muslim women got together and
formed their own board called Muslim women’s personal law board. This board is asking
its own stand favouring women on the basis of Qur’an and hadith. Though Islamic
feminism has not emerged in India, it is on its way.
Some Muslim women NGOs have come together and formed Bhartiya Muslim Mahila
Morcha. They have decided to operate within Islamic framework on one hand, and Indian
Constitutional framework, on the other. It held its first convention in Delhi in early
December. This is certainly a hopeful sign. Yet it is far from sufficient. It is just the
beginning.
There is great need for Qur’anic literacy among Muslim women. Unfortunately the
modern secular educated women know neither Arabic nor are aware of Qur’anic
teachings. In order to bring real change in the Muslim women’s condition, there is great
need to have encounter with traditional Ulama on the basis of Qur’anic injunctions in
respect of women. Needless to say the Qur’an accords equal rights to men and women
and exhorts Muslim men of their obligations towards women. However, many of these
Qur’anic rights were lost in the Shari’ah formulations in a conservative traditional feudal
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society. It is for Islamic feminist to revisit Qur’an and develop Qur’anic discourse of
women’s rights.
Most of the Muslim countries have abolished triple divorce also known as oral divorce.
India is the only country with second largest population of Muslims, which still upholds
validity of oral divorce and orthodox Ulama even uphold divorce given through SMS
flying in the face of Qur’an. It is totally unjust to women and Qur’an whose most
fundamental value is justice (‘adl can never permit such unjust form of divorce. Qur’an
has laid down proper procedure for divorce, which unfortunately is not followed by
Muslims though they swear by divinity of the Qur’an.
India being a secular democratic country there is much more political and social space
available to Muslim women in India compared to their sisters in many other Muslim
countries. To avail of this social and political space increased awareness among women is
needed. The greatest stumbling block is poverty. One finds even great urge for modern
education among women but poverty pulls them down.
Mr. Firoz Ashraf, an activist from Mumbai for women’s education, told me there is
unbelievable poverty among Muslims in Mumbai. There is great urge for education, he
tells me yet they have no resources and hence drop out rate remains high. He and his wife
work hard to coach these very poor girl children to prepare them for SSC examination
free of charge. Even then it is so difficult to sustain them on account of grinding poverty.
Another healthy change is that parents’ resistance for girl’s education is far less today
compared to say 25 years ago. In many cases, Muslim women are far greater achievers in
education field than Muslim boys. In Kolhapur, an industrial town in Maharasthra, I was
told by Muslim leaders that there are twice as many Muslim girl post-graduates as
Muslim boys.
Though one cannot expect drastic changes in the plight of Muslim women in India in
near future but one can certainly hope for incremental changes. The number of Muslim
women activists is on the increase as pointed out above. This will further increase with
the passage of time. If Sachar Committee Report is implemented in right earnest, it will
accelerate the pace of change in women’s condition too But what is most unfortunate is
that those who taunt Muslims about plight of Muslim women are today greatest opponent
of implementation of Sachar Committee Report calling it ‘blatant appeasement’ of
Muslims. One can very well see whether they are concerned with the plight of Muslim
women or really trying to communalise Muslim women’s issues.
To empower Muslim women, to reduce rate of child birth, to usher in religious and social
reforms, there is great need to improve general economic condition which in turn will
improve educational status of Muslim women and that in turn will bring in greater
awareness for change. There is also great need for internal critique and at least educated
Muslim men should attempt an honest criticism of condition of women in their
community and consolidate efforts for change and reform. They also tend to be defensive
and reactive. Time has certainly come to be proactive for improving Muslim women’s
status in India.
----------------------------------------------Centre for Study of Society and Secularism
Mumbai:- 400 055