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.If your daughters are going to coed schools or wearing Western clothes, then it is a very dangerous sign." The fairly straight, no-frills lecture blared out of a loudspeaker on a mildly cold winter day as the ominous words wafted through an impoverished locality characterised by potholes, broken footpaths, garbage dumps and naked wires dangling from electric poles. But, wait, where was this coming from? Afghanistan? Saudi Arabia?
Startling as it may seem, it was Seelampur, in the heart of Delhi. "It is uncomfortable and embarassing," says Habiba Rasheedi, a 20-something marketing executive who lives in the colony. "Such announcements can be heard in almost all Muslimconcentrated localities. From asking girls to be married at a young age, cautions against applying nail paint, lipstick, and wearing bindis, the warnings cross absurd limits. In the end, though, it makes it difficult for young Muslim girls and women to step out of the house."
It doesn't stop there. Besides the announcements, printing and distributing of books listing similar fatuousness is also prevalent, usually by maulvis preaching along the lines of the Taliban. Of course, activists like Mumbai-based Asghar Ali Engineer are struggling to clear the mist, but it isn't easy. He says, "What all is being taught in the name of religion are only cultural practices. Nothing like this is written in the Quran. Therefore, it is essential to take workshop of these maulvis as well to create awareness"
"Things changed for all Muslims across the world post 9/11," says Juhi Irfan, a B Com student. "We were told the world outside is unsafe for us. But it is worse in certain quarters, like here. The distance between Seelampur metro station and my house is about 20 minutes. But it might as well have been 20 years. Be it within the walls or outside, Muslim women are under cultural and moral scrutiny." But all that might just be changing. The women, mostly young and frustrated with medieval diktats, have now begun to openly challenge what one of them calls the "perverse expectations of people caught in a time warp". There is a quiet, seething rebellion in the ghettos and Naish Hasan, founder member of Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, Lucknow, says the girls won't take it anymore.
Last year, a group of women thrashed a maulana and madarsa employees for endorsing one-sided talaq in Lucknow. "It's a classic example of women standing up for themselves," Hasan says. "Women who are ignorant and uneducated may not be able to confront the maulvis, but they, too, are steering away from such ideas and refusing to get influenced. It would help, though, to have the maulvis monitored. The state should ban groups of such selfproclaimed torchbearers of religion who are only harming the mobility and freedom of Muslim women." Educated and aspiring women like Juhi have reason to feel angry. Data from the National Sample Survey Organisation shows that barely 3.6 % of Muslims are graduates. The Sachar Committee Report-2006 says that women wearing burkha find it difficult to get work in corporate offices. Poverty and the community's inability to see education translating into formal employment has further resulted in countless children being pulled away from schools. Girls, especially, are put to work to earn extra income. "Many self-employed Muslim women work in poor conditions with almost no security benefits and health insurance," says Seema Biswas, associate professor, department of Islamic History and Culture, University of Calcutta.
In such a scenario, it was obvious that women would stop to say "enough". That's exactly what software developer Sadiya Khan did. She was shopping with a friend in Old Delhi when a young maulvi asked - with a straight face - her friend to take off her sunglasses. He was offended when they burst out laughing at the reprimand. Then Sadiya did something she had been meaning to do. She called the cops
I hope the red bolded part happens all over the country soon enough.
scared2:
) do this job...
