Rights of Muslim women

The Muslim Personal Law Board has pretended to give women more marital rights, through its model Nikahnama. The move is totally sham, designed to deflect cricitism. But as Kalpana Sharma tells us, things are changing for the better for Muslim women in India. And for the most part, they are driving the change themselves.

There are many more groups representing Muslim women around the country than in 1985. In Mumbai, for instance, the Muslim Women's Rights Network has prepared its own model nikahnama and has already used it in several marriages. Some older women have persuaded their husbands to take the marriage vows again using this nikahnama. These women are clear that they do not want to wait for a Board made up almost exclusively of men to decide how their rights in marriage will be determined. Twenty years ago such a situation would have been unimaginable.

We also have to note that Muslim women have formed their own Muslim Women's Law Board. They too have rejected the AIMPLB draft and plan to bring out their own. They are speaking out in the media without any fear. And most unusual of all developments is the determination of Sharifa Khanam of Puddukottai, Tamil Nadu to build a separate mosque for women. She argues that when women go to the police, they are referred to the Jamat, which holds its meetings in the mosque. Here women cannot enter and the Jamat is exclusively male. So, she says, women's problems should be settled in a place where women can meet. Why not a mosque for women?

Its still a breeze of change, but what is important is that its blowing. Muslim women in India seem to be closer to the realisation of their rights than ever before. Of course, the journey ahead is long and tiresome, but hope will lead the way.