INDIAN MUSLIM WOMEN’S ENGAGEMENT WITH THE INDIAN CONSTITUTION

INDIAN MUSLIM WOMEN’S ENGAGEMENT WITH THE INDIAN CONSTITUTION 

CONSTITUTIONAL VALUES IN WORK LIFE

Constitutional values, without reference to the Constitution was the core system that has guided my work. Through my graduation and post-graduation, I was known amongst my friend circle to be always supporting women’s rights. My work with marginalized communities especially my stint in YUVA helped me in getting a better and in-depth understanding of these values. It was also a time after the riots of 1992-93 which sowed the seeds of making these values the basis of my work with Muslim women.  

It was my stint in Anjuman-I-Islam that I realized how much the Muslim women has been deprived off. The mindset of the AI management was extremely conservative so much so that they could not accept my inter-religious marriage. I was sure by then that without the principles of equality and justice and freedom all work with the Muslim women would have no meaning. It also helped that in the course of my work I was able to imbibe the feminist values of always prioritizing and valuing the experiences of women.

In 2007 when BMMA was formed, the vision document itself made a reference to the Indian Constitution. Our vision statement talked about the values of equality, justice, freedom, wisdom and compassion which are an amalgamation of the values of the Constitution and the Quran. For us it was important that Muslim women recognize themselves as not just having a religious identity but also identify herself as a citizen of the country. BMMA’s core values come from the Constitution. Our work around demanding implementation of Sachar committee report or the demand to codify Muslim family law comes from the constitutional framework. In all our publications, public hearings, press releases we have constantly reiterated the need for constitutional protection for Muslim women. Bringing another dimension of Muslim women as a citizen has been crucial in our fight for legal justice for Muslim women. 

My work related to the constitution per say began very actively in 2014 after the current government came to power. The open lynching of the Muslim and dalit youth, the open talk of changing the constitution and the audacity of the ruling dispensation to upturn secular values was too much to ignore. Our first public protest happened in 2015-6 when the Shiv Sena talked of removing the word socialism and secularism from the Constitution. We had a dharna and later a submission to the CM lodging our protest. 

Invoking the constitution, we also protested against the beef ban in the state of Maharashtra. 6000 signatures in 2 days were submitted to the government demanding the revoking of the ban. 

We set up Aurton ki Shariat Adalat using the article 39A of the constitution which refers to free legal aid and equal justice. Close to 150 women every year access legal aid and guidance from our legal aid centres. 

Since then we have been training Muslim girls and boys on the constitution through our community volunteers. 

In the first of its kind when BMMA initiated Muslim women to become qazis, we included a chapter on the constitution. Muslim women who are fighting for their rights must know that as a citizen she has many rights and many of her rights are protected by the constitution of the country. In fact, we always say that as Muslim women we are very privileged to be born in this country which has given us universal human rights on a platter. 

CONSTITUTIONAL VALUES IN PERSONAL LIFE

Thankfully I did not have to struggle due to my given identities. That was probably because I stayed in a matrilocal family. My father shifted from his village to Mumbai in search of job and stayed with my mother's family which had only 6 sisters and no man. The eldest sister of my mother ensured that her two younger sisters, i.e. my mother and aunt went to school and college. My mother and aunt were first generation learners who travelled from Bhendi Bazaar to Jogeshwari then to get college education. My father was humble and strong enough to stay with his wife and her family. 

Both my parents being post graduates and liberal, I was given a very liberal and nurturing upbringing. There was no discrimination between me, my sister and my brother. Equal access to education in good school and later college ensured that we developed a cosmopolitan approach to people. 

From this family of maternal aunts and both parents through different interactions and observing their behaviour, I learnt the values of equality and justice and compassion. Zakat was given regularly to poor women. We were encouraged to speak respectfully to all our domestic supporters. In fact, we would call our domestic help, amma.We were made to greet her respectfully during festivals. There were male domestic helpers also played with my brother. Young female domestic helpers were my friends with whom I played. I still have photographs with all of them. There were not our helpers but friends with whom we spent our playtime. 

I don’t remember being told that I should or should not do a certain activity just because I am a girl. In college too I was encouraged to participate in all extra-curricular activities. I was never questioned when I came home late. I was never questioned on being with male friends who would also come home. 

I was the only Muslim girl in my college group which I never became conscious off till the riots of 1992-93. My father was part of a trilogy consisting of Hindu and Christian, who worked hard on setting up the housing society where we later shifted. In this society we were the only Muslim family and my parents ensured that all society neighbours got sheerkurmaduring Eid. During the riots in 1993, our Hindu neighbours supported us and my Hindu college friend helped us escape unhurt. 

Not even once did my parents object to my marriage to a Hindu. Till they passed away they had a wonderful relationship with my husband.

The Islam of my childhood was all about charity, compassion, belief in the goodness of God and its people. The damage began much later and I am glad I was able to ingrain the pre-Saudi Islam and now based on that I am challenging it. 

I have done my best to put those values in practice:

·      I officially added my mother’s name to my name 

·      I officially added my name to my children’s name 

·      I refused to change my name or add my husband’s name or surname after my marriage

·      I also refused to change my religious identity after my marriage 

·     One of my non-negotiables before marriage was that I will continue to work

·      I have taught these values to my children through stories and anecdotes

·     As they grew up talking about constitution become an important part of the upbringing. Time and again I keep telling them about the Indian constitution. 

There has been no major uproar in the family as that’s where I got these values from in the first place. My father was fine when I added my mother’s name and removed his surname. 

My husband was fine when I told him about my non-negotiables before marriage, which was not changing my religion and name and not adding his name and surname and continue to work after marriage. 

It took some time for my in-laws to come to terms with it which was largely my husband’s fight with them. I refused to take the burden of convincing them. It was my husbands’ job and he managed fine. 

CHALLENGES AS WE OPERATIONALISE THE CONSTITUTIONAL VALUES

Challenges:

1.    Constitutional values have always been devalued. Especially as a Muslim, we have been denied justice especially in hundreds of incidences of communal violence. The ShriKrishna Commission report which indicted the Shiv Sena remains to be implemented. The Sachar Committee report and the Mehmood Rahman report has not been implemented. The current political dispensation is openly anti-Muslim but the other so-called secular parties, largely Congress, has been equally responsible for the deprivation of the Muslim community. It has truly been a party siding with the conservatives within the Muslim community and also a soft-Hindutva party, conservative and right wing to the core but putting up a charade of secularism. These so-called secular parties are singularly responsible for the marginalization of the Muslim women. We all know what the congress did at the time of Shahbanu and the role that it played recently in not passing the triple talaak ordinance into a law. 

2.    Political parties behave in an unconstitutional way because the people in their constituencies have no idea about the constitution. Constitution is taught in the civics category of history/civics and we know as students it was taught in the driest and uninteresting way. Constitutional values cannot be merely a subject to be taught and got marks over. It has to be ingrained, imbibed and felt. 

3.    In the current times it is important that secular values are safeguarded most from the onslaught of the political class. Now looks like it is the ordinary citizens who will have to play that role. We cannot leave it to the so-called custodians. 

4.    The conservative sections of the Muslim community have always very conveniently invoked the Indian constitution for safeguarding their rights as minorities and rightly so. But when it comes to Muslim women, they have conveniently forgotten that Muslim women are also citizens of this country and they have right over it as much as they have. Invoking Article 25-26 of the Indian constitution is much the right of Muslim women as it is of the Muslim men and this the men of the community have to realize it, sooner the better. It is this very articles that was our basis for fighting the Haji Ali case where the women were barred from entering the sanctum, along with other articles 14, 15 and 21.  

The challenge itself is an opportunity. 

Conversations around constitutional values must be the talk of our drawing rooms and even bedrooms. It must be made common place. No conversation must happen without referring to them.

As an activist have always used the constitutional basis for Muslim law reform and have introduced the same in our training curriculum for women qazis. For us a Muslim women’s organization it is crucial that we talk about in the communities where we work. It is especially crucial for the Muslim youth to know that the country’s constitution stands with them as citizens.  

Constitution as a basis for advocacy of our rights is another opportunity. BMMA fought it for entry into the Haji Ali dargah. We filed a PIL against triple divorce and got a good judgment which is the basis for ordinance against triple divorce. We are in the process of filing a PIL against polygamy and halala again invoking the constitutional values. The larger demand of a Muslim Code Bill is also based on the provision in the constitution. That fight will take a long time and we are already on our way. 

Muslim male youth especially must be reached out with this values as they are right now only reached out to as a Muslim. Invoking their sense of citizenship is a challenge and an opportunity.