Author: Firoz Bakht Ahmed
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: March 8, 2001
When her parents asked her to wear
a burqa (veil) while attending her university classes, Rubina refused to
comply. The result was that she was barred from going to university and
sat at home washing dishes.
Barely 16, Safia, a brilliant student
of class X, was on the warpath against her parents who had fixed her marriage
with a man almost three times her age. Safia, who aspired to be a doctor,
had no choice but to discontinue her students despite being a topper at
school.
These are just two examples of the
forced illiteracy among Muslim women, which lies at the root of the backwardness
of the community. After the debilitating trauma of the subcontinent's vivisection,
Muslims struck to traditional forms of education in a futile bid to retain
the identity of their religion. That's why we don't have many Fatima Beevis,
Najma Heptullahs and Shabana Azmis.
Even in the new millennium, the
Indian Muslim women continues to be helpless. The responsibility for this
doesn't lie with Islam, but with Muslim men who have curtailed most of
the rights of their women in the face of the Quranic injunction that it
is the duty of every Muslim man and woman to attain knowledge equally.
Muslim women in India are also handicapped
by the dictates of Muslim Personal Law that is not scriptural in nature
and the conservative ulema who interpret them in a very orthodox manner.
The Shariat law that came into being in 1937, is outmoded in its provisions
relating to marriage, divorce, inheritance, and the maintenance and custody
of children. At the time of Prophet Mohammed, women were exhorted to act
as imams and lead the congregational prayers.
The repression of women has weakened
the Muslim community. It has only a few educated girls. The Muslim girl's
lot has been reduced to that of a prisoner without parole said Fehmida
Riyaz, a globally acclaimed Pakistani poetess, in Chadur Nur Chahardiwari,
a book for which she was exiled by Zia-ul-Haq. For that matter, Afghanistan
under the Taliban is the largest prison for women in the world. The Afghan
Women 's Network, a group of enlightened and educated Muslim women from
Kabul, living in exile in Pakistan, write in their dossier: "We ask all
the readers to tell your government, the United Nations and the international
human rights organizations that Afghan women and girls must be able to
leave their homes without being harassed and beaten."
One has heard of Muslim men using
the talaq over insignificant matters like a meal not liked or the wife's
choice of clothes. Prophet Mohammed abhorred divorce. But according to
Islamic tenets, a Muslim woman can also seek divorce, though that rarely
happens, either through mutual agreement, a process known as Khulaa, or
in a court of law. But she cannot act unilaterally like a man can. This
inequality must be mitigated by the intervention of the state. Islam has
unreservedly condemned men and women who use their legal rights of divorce
indiscriminately.
Indonesia, Pakistan and Turkey have
enacted laws requiring permission from a court of law to remarry. The authorities
favour laying down the condition that remarriage will require the permission
of the first wife. The votaries of polygyny feel that such conditions should
not be laid down, since the first wife will never permit her husband marry
again. Because of the increasing incidence of polygamy, the Islamic court
of Dar-ul-eaza, has laid down the condition that polygyny will be allowed
only if a person shows sufficient cause, and satisfies the authorities
that he will be able to bear the additional economic burden and not divorce
the first wife. The time has come for Muslims to think about the upliftment
of their womenfolk within the four walls of the scriptures. But Indian
Muslims have actually taken away from their women the rights the Quran
has granted them.
The problem is that Muslim women
have, time and again, been dragged in one controversy or another. Be it
the debate over whether Muslim women should be allowed to pray inside mosques
or the Shah Bano imbroglio. Politicians and clerics both try to make political
mileage out of it. No one is worried about their welfare. Muslim fundamentalists
throughout the world and more prominently in Muslim-dominated states are
trying to make Muslim women faceless and nameless.
To debase the position of women,
the clerics are catering to three foundational assumptions to prove their
inequality. Firstly, it was considered that it was Adam who gave birth
to woman (as in the Bible) and that she has to be subservient to man. Secondly,
it was Eve who dragged Adam into temptations; so she was vile right from
her genesis. Thirdly, woman was not created from man but for man.
Women in Islam have many rights.
Prophet Mohammed restricted polygyny, discouraged divorce, forbade female
infanticide and disposal of widows as part of the deceased man's possessions.
Moreover, he established a law of inheritance for women, secured to wives
the right to mehr (dower), enjoined kind treatment towards female slaves
and at the same time promised religious favours as a reward to those who
helped support widows and orphans. Muslim men who are not following their
Prophet's dictates.
It is high time that Islamic laws
are interpreted and understood from a progressive perspective to do away
with discrimination. Prophet Mohammed did not discriminate between men
and women.
