Beyond burkha politics

As soon as the Rajya Sabha passed women’s reservation bill to ensure 33% reservation for women in Parliament and state legislative assemblies, the issue of backward and Muslim women jigged to the centre of the debate. At the heart of the argument — both its supporters and critics — were Muslim women.

Earlier, Muslim women were in the limelight because of the pathetic tales of the Imranas, Gudias and Shah Banos — feeble women subject to outmoded conventions and customs and oppressed by the men in their own community.

In the wake of the women’s reservation bill, the terms of the debate in the case of Muslim women have changed somewhat. Every one started searching for a leader among them, or of making one, if possible. Unlike the earlier approach of looking for enlightened people who would liberate them, Muslim women are now being asked to be leaders.

The sad fact is that there have been few women leaders from the community. And most of those in this minuscule group were from the influential upper crust. This was again a part of symbolic politics rather than genuine representation. It has been so with regard to women in politics in general, and it is more so in the case of Muslim women. It is because of this half-hearted tokenism that the community could not produce a Sushma Swaraj or a Mayawati in 60 years of independent India. More importantly, Muslim women are missing from the debate about themselves.

They are so disempowered that they need someone else to represent them even to voice their views in public and through the media.

A look at the number of women in Parliament since Independence tells a starker tale. In the 15 general elections held so far, a total 549 women have been elected to the Lok Sabha. Of them, only 18 were Muslims. At least six Lok Sabhas did not have a single Muslim woman as a member.

The people of India sent three Muslim women to Parliament in the 2009 election — Mausam Benazir Noor, Tabassum Begum and Qaisar Jahan. Their backgrounds are revealing: Malda MP Mausam Benazir Noor is the niece of former Union minister ABA Ghani Khan Choudhury; Kairana MP Tabassum Begum is the widow of powerful BSP MP Munawar Hasan, and the parliamentarian from Sitapur, Qaisar Jahan, is the wife of Sitapur’s sitting BSP MLA J Ansari. These women would not be there if they did not have the support of the male members of their families.

According to some social scientists, if and when the women’s reservation bill becomes law, it will be the biggest socio-political event since Independence. They say it will not just change the picture of India’s Parliament but the overall approach of Indian society towards women, and also how the rest of the world will look at India. The fallout will not be revolutionary or dramatic if one considers the hard facts of the case, especially with regard to Muslim women.

The Sachar committee — set up by prime minister Manmohan Singh to analyse the social, economic and educational status of
Indian Muslims — noted that for every 100 Muslim women, only one was able to go to the university to get a graduation. Muslim women are then woefully lagging behind their counterparts in the other groups. The hijab and other regressive practices make it difficult for women to break the old shackles and come out into the open. Muslim society does not motivate its women to venture out of the home. With this kind of constricted social base, it will be difficult for Muslim women to make use of any legislation based on affirmative action.

A look at the figures of Muslim women in the 15 parliamentary elections held so far makes it clear that it is almost impossible
for a Muslim candidate to get elected from an area which is not dominated by Muslims. We will be deluding ourselves if we were
to believe that gender will transcend caste and religion; and that a non-Muslim majority will elect a Muslim woman. Gender is not strong enough to break caste and communal barriers.

According to the Sachar committee, the number of Muslim-majority areas reserved for Dalits is one of the reasons for the political under-representation of Muslims. This makes the issue of representation for Muslim women all the more difficult. 

The status and representation of Muslims in general is crucially linked to the issue of representation of the women of the community. Without a bold initiative it will be difficult to get a fair representation for Muslim women.