By TCN Special Correspondent,
Bangalore: A two-day workshop on “Capacity-building and awareness creation for Muslim women” was held at the Indian Social Institute, Bangalore on April 9 and 10. It was sponsored by the Indian Social Institute along with the Center for Study of Society and Secularism, Mumbai, and the Bangalore-based Talent Promotion Trust and attended by highly qualified young Muslim women such as law graduates, engineers and IT professionals from Infosys, Wipro and similar organisations.
Noted reformist scholar Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer delivered the keynote address and Secretary-General of Forum for the Promotion of Moderate Thought among Muslims, Mr. A. Faizur Rahman was the Guest of Honour. Other eminent speakers included Dr. K.M. George, Director, Indian Social Institute, Mr. M. A. K. Tayab IAS (Retd), Former Secretary, Govt. of India, Mr. Maqbool Ahmed Siraj, journalist and social activist, Dr. Vasundara Mohan, Director CSSS Mumbai, Prof. Hasan Mansur , his wife Ms. Hasanath Mansur, Dr. Rafat Seema and civil rights activist Ms. Kaneez Fatima.
Dr. K.M. George inaugurated the workshop. He said the situation of Muslim women was miserable as they were neither opinion-makers nor decision-makers.
Dr. Vasundhara Mohan said that the Muslim women are not able to exercise their rights enshrined in the Holy Quran. They need to be empowered with both their Quranic rights and Constitutional rights.
The following is the summary of some of the speeches.
Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer
Dr. Engineer was of the opinion that religion cannot be understood unless we understand the socio-cultural context in which it was revealed. “One has to understand the society in order to understand the religion. All of us are firm in our belief that our religion is pure and has come to us as revealed by us. Therefore we delink it from the historio-cultural context. One would better understand the religion, if he were to study the history, culture and society when the messengers or revelations came” he said.
He pointed out that the Quran has two types of verses namely, normative and transcendental. Arab society was not culturally monolithic when the Prophet began to address and reform it. Makkah was religiously and commercially important centre and the Quraysh tribe was the custodian of the Holy Kaaba. There was tussle between migrants and natives. The Bedouins used to earn their living either by grazing animals or by raiding and looting the commercial caravans. Status and position of women varied between tribes and communities. Some tribes even practiced polyandry. Quranic commentator Tabari has mentioned the practice of polyandry. If a woman in a polyandrous relationship wanted to tell her man that she does not want to continue the relationship, she would turn the direction of the tent before his arrival. Makkah’s women enjoyed a better status.
According to Dr. Engineer the family structure came into existence only when property and assets came into being, which itself was outcome of organized economic activity. It urged setting parameters of a family, casting the responsibility of children and setting conditions for division of property. So certitude of paternity and therefore marriage also became necessity. Divorce followed it. Since Bedouins had no property, no family took shape.
The main purpose of Islam was to change and reform the society. The Quran was pragmatic in the process of reform. It did not implement reforms in a haphazard way. So, although, the slavery was not abolished with one stroke, but enough indication was given that it was undesirable by asking the followers of Islam to set free slaves as a way of penance.
There was this practice of free sex with slave-girls. Quran prohibited this. There has been debate on this. The Quran made it mandatory for people to marry the slave-girls only after nikah. Slavery continued to be practiced among Arabs till recently although it was abolished in the America in 19thcentury. Some Afghans who came from Afghanistan said Arab Mujahideen captured Russian women during Soviet-Afghan war and used them for sexual relationship.
Moreover, whole discourse among Arabs used to be about duties of women towards their husbands and the rights of the husbands over their wives. The Quran reversed it entirely. It talks about rights of women and the duties of men. Media today looks upon Muslim society, not the real Islam. So they malign Islam.
Secondly, Islam grew in a feudal society as Umayyad rulers reversed the Khilafat. So Kings corrupted the courtiers and a culture of sycophancy was cultivated. Harems mushroomed in kingdoms. They began to follow Roman and Persian emperors. Islam spread very rapidly in the wake of conquests and the society came to embrace and imbibe all the cultures, traditions, and ethos of conquered lands and societies. Women could not be trained properly. Thus entire discourse turned against women.
Verses like Arrijalu qawwamuna alan nisaa have been variously interpreted. Perhaps qamaa ala should mean ‘to take care of’, ‘provide for’ etc in today’s context rather than legitimizing patriarchy. Fiqqahul Quran explains this term as ‘to stand for’. It says that those among the spouses will earn, will stand for the other. It is a functional term, not a theological term.
Much against all these, the Muslim society today has adopted practices that are either repugnant to the Quran or do not gel with the Islamic spirit. Arabs have this tradition of giving talaqul maut, or divorcing the wives by husbands on death beds in order to deprive the women of their share in inheritance.
Quran’s is the most modern law. But we are imprisoned in the Arabic ulema’s fiqh. They do not want to come out of it. Amendment to Muslim Personal law is opposed because it dilutes patriarchy.
M. A. K. Tayab
Mr. Tayab spoke in favour of a patriarchy-free reading of the Quran He related an incident in 2002, wherein the religious police of Saudi Arabia pushed the girls fleeing from a school building on fire in the city of Makkah to return to their rooms, put on their hijab and come out. No words can be sufficient to describe the morally abhorrent depravity of the religious police Muttawwun.
At least 14 girls were either asphyxiated or burnt alive. Eyewitnesses said they saw the mutawwun beating back the girls inside the school because they were not properly covered. Then crown prince (now king) Abdullah ordered investigations into the incident but then after three days the newspapers were told not to publish anything further about the incident.
On talaq Mr. Tayab said that it was a liberative piece of social engineering. But the way it is interpreted by the Hanafi school of ulema, it may come as a shock to know that it is unknown to the Quran. Much of this owes itself to male-centric and patriarchal reading of the Quran.
Kaneez Fatima
Ms. Kaneez said that the Mecca Masjid blast in 2007 woke us up when we found that despite Muslims being the victims, were being accused of triggering the mayhem. Hundreds of innocent Muslim youth were picked up from Old city parts and detained without filing FIRs and were tortured. It was then that we, a group of few women formed a group called Nisa Resource and Research Centre for Women. We began to document such cases, helped the families overcome the trauma, presented such family people before the media and trained them in expressing their woes. We launched the advocacy sessions to teach the simple folk about their civil rights and how to build up pressure on the government to either launch trials or release the youth. The released youth were rehabilitated in various occupations and were even provided monetary assistance to set up businesses. Nisa has recently launched its magazine Nisa Quarterly Research magazine.
A. Faizur Rahman
In his lecture Mr. Faizur Rahman said that the status of men and women in Quran is almost identical. Men and women have equal rights and duties towards each other. Marriage in Islam is an agreement between two equals to live together in peace and harmony, and as such parents have no right to marry off their daughters at young age. The Quran makes it very clear (in 4:6) that Muslim may consider marrying only when they are intellectually mature. Hence, pre-puberty marriage is null and void in Islam.
Taking his argument on the concept of marriage further Mr. Faizur Rahman pointed out that since it is an agreement (meesaq) between two equals the marital bond cannot be broken off by one party unilaterally. Therefore, the idea of man arrogating to himself the absolute right to divorce is alien to the law of divorce as laid down in the Quran. Explaining the Quranic procedure of divorce he said that triple talaq in one sitting is Islamically illegal.
Mr. Faizur Rahman also drew attention to the fact that the word khula does not find mention in the Quran which is an indication of the fact that the procedure given to men hold good for women too. He therefore wanted the ulema to consider doing away with the present system of khula which is highly discriminatory towards women. Instead the ulema must convene a conference to explore the possibility of having a common law of divorce for both men and women which he explained in the following manner.
Four steps before the first talaq
(As laid down in 4: 34-35)
As a first step, when there is a marital discord, the Quran advices the husband to reason out (fa’izu hunna) with his wife through discussions. If differences persist, then as a next step, the parties are asked to sexually distance themselves (wahjuru hunna) from each other in the hope that this temporary physical separation may encourage them to unite.
And if even this fails, the husband is instructed, as a third step, to once again explain (wazribu hunna) to his wife the seriousness of the situation and try to bring about a reconciliation. In pursuance of wazribu hunna, the husband shall explain to his wife that if they do not resolve their differences soon enough, their dispute may go beyond the confines of their house and become common knowledge which may not be in the interest of both parties. This would be true because, if the dispute still remains unresolved, as a fourth step, the Quran requires the matter to be placed before two arbiters, one from the family of each spouse, for resolution.
Three talaqs
(As laid down in 2:228-232 & 65:1-4)
It is only after the failure of the aforementioned four attempts at reconciliation that the Quran allows the first talaq to be pronounced followed by a waiting period called the iddah. Not more than two divorces can be pronounced within this period, the duration of which is three monthly courses (2:228-229). For women who have passed the age of menstruation the period of iddah is three months and in the case of pregnant women it is till the termination of pregnancy (65:4).
And if the parties are unable to unite during the period of iddah as envisaged by verse 2:228, the final irrevocable talaq can be pronounced, but only after the expiry of the iddah (2:231). Once the final talaq has been invoked the marital bond is severed and the parties cease to be of any relation to each other. However, even after the period of iddah has lapsed, the Quran offers the contending parties a chance to reunite, provided the final talaq has not been pronounced. It says, “When you divorce women and they complete their term (iddah), do not prevent them from marrying their husbands if they mutually agree on equitable terms” (2:232). In other words, after the expiry of iddah, as per verses 2:231 & 232, the parties are given the options of remarriage and permanent separation- the separation being the third and the final irrevocable talaq to be pronounced in the presence of two witnesses (65:2).
However, to emphasise the sanctity of the marriage tie and the enormity of breaking it for frivolous reasons, the Quran warns that once the parties choose to separate after the expiry of the iddah, they cannot entertain hopes of marrying again unless the wife takes another husband and he divorces her (2:230). It is understood here that a divorce may result only if the new husband has serious differences with his wife, and in the rare event of such differences cropping up, he is required to follow the Quranic procedure of divorce as discussed above.
Step by step summary of the Quranic procedure of talaq
1. Husband and wife to reason out through dialogue (fa’izu hunna)
2. Temporary physical separation…………………(wahjuru hunna)
3. More convincing to effect reconciliation………(wazribu hunna)
4. Arbitration
5. First talaq followed by iddah
6. Options within iddah – 2nd talaq or resumption of conjugal relations without re-marriage
7. Options after iddah – Re-marriage or final separation through third talaq.
Maqbool Ahmed Siraj
I have been working among students for the last quarter century, trying to counsel them on careers, funding their studies through scholarships, arranging accommodation in hostels, and organising orientation camps to bring them in touch with professionals from diverse fields of activity. The work often takes me to Muslim dominated slums in Bangalore. Nearly six lakh, i.e., about 40 % of Bangalore Muslims live in slums or near slum conditions. Teeming multitudes crammed into small houses built across narrow streets, these slums are inhabited by petty businessmen, self-employed individuals such as auto-rickshaw drivers, tinkerers, welders, auto mechanics, bakers and hawkers. A social worker who lives in one such typical slum, has often brought to me several meritorious students with high aspirations and enough talent and dynamism. I hereunder present some facts of family lives in order that our readers could draw visual images of mode of life in these slums: (In order to protect the privacy of the individuals, all names have been changed).
• Akbari is 49 and has given birth to 25 kids. Twenty three of them live with her in a house that is barely bigger than 25 feet by 12 feet. Several of them are married and have kids who share the scarce space. Imagine the moral development of kids in a crammed house where children grow while sharing space with married couples.
• My friend takes me to a particular street and bets that he could point out a dozen Muslim grandmothers whose ages range from 27 to 30. Early marriages are bane. If women could be grandmothers at the age of 30, it means that two generations were dept away from reaching up to the stage of SSLC.
• A coaching academy run by a concerned Muslim in the locality has 15 Muslim girls on its rolls who are being coached for 10th grade Board exams. Of these, four are divorced women. Two of them have kids too.
• Naseema is 65 and is a housemaid. She is herself second existing wife of her husband. She bore 14 children, all alive. Six of her daughters are second existing wives of their husbands.
• Gulabjan is a 54 year old maid. Part of her face and neck bear the burn marks due to acid attack which she attributes to her deceased husband from whom she bore nine kids. Curiously, seven kids were born after the acid burning. One of her child went missing 14 years ago and is yet to be untraced. Several of her daughters are existing second wives of their husbands.
To have 25 kids from a marriage, or to be second existing wives, or to be grandmother at 30 is not against sharia. But would anyone of us like to live a life like this or have a family with such credentials? What is to be concluded is that we do not live by religious norms alone, we follow societal conventions, go by propriety, and live by prevalent norms. It is where we need to differentiate our status.
We have been witness to the Muslim Personal Law Board mounting spectacles year after year in all-India sessions or talking about status of women in Islam, but it has never bothered to set up even a single marital counseling home or a short stay home for women from broken families. Women are invariably denied share in inheritance be it from parents or husbands. Nearly half the dowry burning cases of women in Bangalore originate from Muslim families. Police are routinely bribed to suppress the cases. Meh’r is hardly ever paid. No thought has been spared to give the women the right to claim half the property gathered after marriage if the marriage is dissolved. In areas where even the writ of the police does not run, how could darul qazas implement their fiats? Girls are married away much before the prescribed national age for marriage and sulk life long for having acquired no education.
We may sustain the illusion of a happy Muslim family through campaigns. But socio-economic realities are too grim to be denied. No wonder why others smile at us disdainfully when they see the mismatch between loud rhetoric and messy family scenario. Morale of the women in the family would go up only when they find that they are treated with fairness, dignity and equality. If not in the family, they should have forums within the community to attend to their grievances. Unfortunately, mechanism to redress these grievances is nowhere to be seen. There are only high sounding slogans, no substance.
It is where the Muslim women need to make a difference. We need rehabilitation homes for discarded women, vocational training centres, even centres to rescue women from red light areas and reform them, a large army of volunteers who can impart morals as well as skills to women, organize them in Self Help Groups, make them productive, set up working women’s hostels (where Muslim women have facilities for Ramazan, taraweeh, meals as prescribed in their religion), pre-marital counseling as well as marital disputes arbitration mechanism, centres for legal awareness and education, personality development centres, etc. Some headway has been made in Bangalore during the last few years with setting up Basera Working Women’s Hostels, Rifaa Home for the Girl Child, Bazme Niswan (for stipends and scholarships for the poor girls), Imdad e Niswan (aiding marriage of poor girls), Aasra Home (for shelter-less women), Basera Girls Home (for orphans), Madrasatul banat, Tanzeemul Mohsinath, Lifeline Microcredit society for organisation of women in SHGs. But we need to go further. Here lies the role for Muslim women. One hopes you would come forward.