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Press
release
ActionAid
and partners launch a national platform to improve the lot of Muslim women
in
India
New
Delhi, January 10, 2007: There
is an urgent need to take steps to improve the lot of Muslim women in India,
stressed ActionAid and partners in the inaugural convention in new Delhi to
mark the launch of " Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan", a
collective of Muslim women from different parts of the country. Over 150
women from across 10 States in
India
were present at the Convention.
Muslims
are the largest minority community in
India
constituting 13.4% of the population with the poor human development index
– widespread illiteracy, low income, irregular employment- implying
thereby a high incidence of poverty and marginalisation. The findings of
Sachar Committee Report bear testimony to the same. Women among all section
of the community stand worst hit bearing not only the burden of patriarchy
but also subjugated to the personal law for ages.
Speaking
on the occasion Seema Mustafa stressed the " need for amendment in the
Muslim Personal Law to create a more equal space for women in the
community".
"The
reform definitely requires a push from within the community but it also has
to find support in the larger collective of woman's movement", she
added.
A
process has been initiated in different states where women from grassroots
and NGO leaders have been discussing the need for women themselves to take
leadership of all the issues concerning their lives. They have felt the need
for a nationwide platform as a way forward. Education, livelihood, security
and law are among the key concerns for the national level advocacy.
"The
idea of Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan was born out of the necessity
for the muslim women to speak for themselves and demand social, economic,
political , civil, legal and religious rights for the realization of equal
citizenship", said Zakia Jowhar of ActionAid
"This
platform also aims to propagate positive and liberal interpretation of
religion which buttress the values of justice, equality and human rights
enshrined in the Constitution of India", she added.
There is crisis of
leadership faced by the Muslim community. There are no satisfactory answers
to who represents the community and takes responsibility for them. Apart
from the government, the community leaders should also pay heed to the
socio-economic backwardness of the community at large and take steps to
ameliorate the condition. It is important especially for women
who suffer the worst owing to the subjugation to the Personal Law.
Dr.
Asghar Ali Engineer of
Institute
of
Islamic Studies
said, "The basic core of the Qur'anic message was that of justice, a
comprehensive concept that included gender justice as well".
Injustice
to women went completely against the grain of the Qur'an's teachings,"
he added
Dr.
Hameeda Nayeem from
Kashmir
University
shared, "The status of muslim was better vis-à-vis muslim women in
India
or
Pakistan
because of reforms in the Islamic laws as early as mid 20th
century"
"The
campaign needs to create alliance of muslim women across but in the larger
context it will also benefit from alliance with women from other
communities", she added.
Muslim
women suffer multiple marginalisation both within the community and outside.
The growing wave of communal forces particularly after the Babri demolition
in 1992 and
Gujarat
carnage in 2002 has made women in the Muslim community more vulnerable. To
make it worse they bear the brunt of poverty, lack of education, inequality
and lack of opportunity within their community. This further necessitates
the need for a platform to raise the concerns of women in particular.
"We
want a platform which can counter the hegemony of kazis and men folks",
said Naz, one of the participants. "And a space that helps create
solidarity with other women where we can express freely and feel
secure", she stressed.
"The
campaign seeks to create a national entity with a formal democratic
structure with a system of accountability duly in place", said Dr Razia
Patel from Pragati Vikas Pune and one of the founding members of the Andolan.
To
ensure the same, "It will be a membership based mass organization with
an Advisory Council to steer the same. The membership will be open to women
from other communities as well but at any given point the muslim women will
constitute 70% of the same", she added.
ENDS
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