Muslim women pull together for education, livelihoods, health and harmony

At its first annual convention, the Indian Muslim Women's Movement or the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA) reinforced its campaign for the social, economic, political, civil, legal and religious rights of Muslims in India.

“The movement has nearly 5000 members now. The change in our members is quite palpable. Muslim women from diverse backgrounds, be they homemakers or semi-skilled artisans, are becoming sharper and more politically aware,” said founding member Zakia Jowher who leads ActionAid’s work on issues of peace and human security in India.

“I have been working in villages on women’s issues for 15 years now. Earlier there was no separate movement for Muslim women, and so their concerns used to get sidelined. Now BMMA gives us the confidence and the skills to better livelihoods and health facilities for Muslim women,” said Rahima Khatun from West Bengal.

Rahima’s organisation Narioshishu Kalyan Kendra gives vocational training like zari embroidery to Muslim women. The Kendra also works on women’s education, domestic violence, child marriages, adolescent health and hygiene.

Rights of the Muslim community

At the convention in Delhi, over 350 Muslim women from across the country along with academics, social experts and Parliamentarians called for the implementation of Justice Sachar Committee recommendations. The Sachar Committee report released in 2006 exposes the severe socio-economic marginalisation of Muslims in India. The committee had recommended more educational facilities and employment opportunities for the community.

BMMA members urged for income-generating schemes, credit-facilities and educational opportunities for the community, especially Muslim women, the worst-affected in an acutely marginalised social group.

Communal politics push women further down

Empowerment of Muslim women and issues like education become the first casualty in the wake of communal politics in the country.

“Women’s issues and their betterment take a backseat in states and cities such as Gujarat and Mumbai where Muslims have had to face riots and state-sponsored intolerance,” said Seema Mustafa, resident editor of Asian Age, a national daily.

Even something as basic as civic amenities are denied to the community. “Our locality is a garbage dump for the whole of Ahmedabad,” said 40 year old Noorbano, a survivor of the 2002 Gujarat riots. “Our people live next to hospital waste, dead animals and what not. The authorities care nothing for us.”

There are bigger problems still. “We have no medical facilities, no schools and no livelihoods. My son was hit with an iron rod on the head during the riots. Now he is mentally unbalanced. The government compensated us with Rs 2000,” added Noorbano.

BMMA members uncovered how Muslim youth are being targeted by the police in the wake of bomb blasts in Malegaon, Ajmer and Hyderabad.

“My young brother was taken away by the Anti-terrorism Squad, just because his number was found on the cell phones of two people the police had arrested earlier. My brother is a god-fearing man with two kids. He is innocent but suffering in jail for 18 months now. We pray everyday that the courts realise that my brother is not a terrorist,” said teary-eyed Qamar.

Dalits and tribal Muslims

Challenges facing Dalit and nomadic tribal Muslims were also examined at the convention. “Dalit Muslims are working from six in the morning till 11 in the night cleaning toilets and picking garbage, but the government has no affirmative action for them,” said Iqbal Painter, an activist working with Dalit Muslims for decades.

“There are hardly any educational facilities and employment prospects for Dalit Muslims,” he added.

Other Muslim groups are also being deprived of their citizenship rights, said Balkrishna Renke, Chairperson, Nomadic Tribes Commission: “Post independence, there are laws on forestry that are taking away the rights of nomadic tribes to grazing land and forests, without providing them with alternatives.”

To demand civil, legal and political rights for the community, BMMA members demonstrated at Jantar Mantar, close to the Parliament building. They also called for the implementation of the recommendations of the Srikrishna Commission, which probed the Bombay riots of 1992.

A BMMA delegation also met with India's Vice President, Dr Hamid Ansari who extended solidarity to the movement’s goals.

"Civil society organisations, the Muslim community, academics and activists are giving us a lot of space and recognition as a movement spearheading discussions on Muslim issues in India. So far this space was either occupied by religious groups or groups headed by Muslim men," says Zakia Jowher of ActionAid.

Photo credit: Lalit Dabral/ActionAid