By M. Reyaz, TwoCircles.net,
Guwahati: City based MY-FACTS, in collaboration with MARG, a Delhi based NGO today organized a workshop on ‘socio-legal status of Muslim women’ for state level consultation of several stakeholders, on the occasion of International Women's Day.
MYFACTS is a group of young Muslim professionals, that is “Muslim Youths’ Forum Against Communalism, Terrorism and Sedition.’
Anju Talukdar, Executive Director of MARG outlined the agenda of the programme. She pointed out that from her experiences she has learned that women from minority communities are doubly discriminated.
“When you approach the ministry of minority affairs, they would say we work for minority as a whole and do not have specific programmes for women, you should approach ministry for women welfare instead. And when you approach the women welfare, they would say we don’t run specific programmes for a particular community and so you should approach the minority ministry,” she said.
MARG is working on a project entitled ‘Improving the Socio - Legal Status of Muslim Women in India’ with support from the British High Commission. This project has three main components: Brining a handbook on the socio legal status of Muslim women in India, needs’ assessment studies (with reference to support for Muslim women), and finally creating a platform for discussion among various stakeholders.
Today’s workshop was part of that programme.
Toiba Sultana of MY-FACTS, who conducted the survey for the state of Assam, elaborated on her findings. She pointed out that in five districts of the state from where they took the samples most women from poor families had not even heard about wither the Minority Commission or the Women’s Commission. “In villages, no one seems to know about these commissions. Even in urban centers some women who claim to have heard about them, were not sure about their work,” she said.
Based on field visits to the villages in the state she also spoke about the problems and challenges women from poor Muslim families face. “I heard so many women lamenting ‘Maati nei, Ghar nei, Swami nei, … (No land, no house, husband dead…)’. Due to poor health system several women are widowed early in life,” she added.
Allen Brooks, member of the Assam State Commission for Minorities, expressed his frustration as the Commission is just a “recommending body,” and it has no real power. It is hence generally very difficult if authorities do not act.
Besides Guwahati, grass-root workers from the districts of Kokrajhar, Nagaon and Morigaon had also come and shared their experiences.
Lutfa Beghum from Manav Seva Sangh shared her experiences of working with poor people and said that due to lack of awareness and our ignorance people are not making use of even the available government schemes.
Besides grass-root workers, academicians, journalists, advocates as well as students had gathered and put forth their point of views. Award winning journalist Teresa Rehman spoke on the discrimination Muslim women face in the use of ‘public space.’
Another session focused on ‘social status of Muslim women in urban context’. Savera Islam, former principal of college pointed out that often discrimination that women, particularly those from poor background, face are often not even acknowledged. Advocate Shenaz Rehman, former member of the legal cell of the state’s women commission explained the commission’s helplessness.
Another session was devoted to ‘the place of women in Islam’ and Sabrina Iqbal, a research scholar at the Gauhati University spoke on the subject.
There were suggestions to held similar programmes and to involve minority development board for the financial assistance.
Other issues raised in the meet:
Multiple marriage and Talaaq,
Lack of Secular Education,
Awareness of Rights & Entitlements,
Madrassa Education Should be modernized,
Early Marriage,
Lack of Knowledge of “DenMehar”,
Economic empowerment(Urban as well as rural),
Place of worship for Muslim women specifically working women,
Engagement with clerics,community leaders,
Involving the women with community,
Some initiative should be taken up by the Govt and stress should be laid in the implementation,
Making the Sachar Committee Report as the benchmark,and
Periodic meeting of the Stakeholders and interested people to gauge the progress.
(With additional inputs from Toiba Sultana)