In a video clip posted on youtube (https://youtu.be/tyO5E8MgQEQ), the influential cleric with a large following among Muslims across the country can be seen and heard issuing the edict: “Do not send your girls to college unaccompanied, not even with a hijab. This is haram, haram (forbidden, sinful). On this night of holy Ramzan, I send this curse on parents who send their daughters to a coaching centre or college unaccompanied: unless they mend their ways, may Allah condemn them to hell.”  

Nomani further declared: hijab or burqa is not enough… it is the duty of parents to keep in touch with the college principal and urge her/him to inform them if their daughter bunks any classes.

The word ‘Maulana’ means a learned Muslim scholar but the latest fulmination of Nomani reeks of blatant ignorance and misogyny. Where does his dire warning leave his flock of followers? How practical is it for either of the parents to accompany their hijab or burqa-clad daughter to college and back, then to coaching classes and back on an everyday basis? What if they have more than one daughter, pursuing different courses/careers, attending different colleges? And what if both parents are working?

Nomani’s imagery and advise are patently feudal; unsuited for Indian Muslims who are overwhelmingly working class. Does it also mean that sending their daughter to a hostel is out of the question? Is this not an indirect way of advising parents to keep their daughters away from higher education? And what about the sons: do as they please?

When the Taliban recaptured power in Afghanistan in 2021, Nomani was among the first to rejoice and dash off his congratulations to the mullahs. His blatantly anti-women utterances are proof of his Talibani mindset. By damning those who do not follow his diktat to hell, Nomani is attempting to exert pressure upon and influence his followers to discriminate against women in the community and deprive them of their agency, right to move freely and right to education which are provided under the Indian Constitution.

Muslim women are leaders and educators of today, with equal rights and entitlements. Nomani is not only threatening those rights directly by misrepresenting and using the tool of religion, but is misusing his authority to propagate inequality and orthodoxy. The IMSD categorically rejects Nomani’s antediluvian ideas and underlines that they do not represent the opinion of all Indian Muslims. This moral policing of women should stop and the likes of Nomani should be called out by all right-thinking Indians.

Many decades ago, it was this very mindset which advised Muslims to keep away from modern education as a result of which Muslims are the most deprived community in India. Today, when Muslim women are coming out in large numbers to access higher education, it should be welcomed and the community should put structures in place to facilitate this process. Instead, we have regressive minds like Nomani who want to put breaks on Muslim women empowerment and re-domesticate them. In particular, we appeal to Muslim organizations to condemn this anti-women statement of Nomani.  

Signatories:

1. A. J. Jawad, Advocate, Chennai
2. Aftab Khan, Journalist, Nasik
3. Anjum Rajabali, Film Writer, Mumbai
4. Arif Kapadia, IMSD, Business, Activist, Mumbra, Thane
5. Arshad Alam, IMSD, Columnist, New Age Islam, Delhi
6. Aziz Lokhandwala, Businessman, Mumbai
7. Bader Sayeed, Advocate, former MLA, Chennai
8. Bilal Khan, IMSD, Activist, Mumbai
9. Farhan Rahman, Asst. Prof., Ranchi University, Ranchi
10. Feroze Mithiborwala, IMSD, Co-convener, Bharat Bachao Andolan, Mumbai
11. Gauhar Raza, Anhad, Delhi
12.  Irfan Engineer, IMSD Co-convener, CSSS, Mumbai
13.  Javed Anand, IMSD Convener, CJP, SabrangIndia Online, Mumbai
14.  Kasim Sait, Businessman, Philanthropist, Chennai
15.  Khadija Farouqui, IMSD, Activist, Delhi
16.  Lara Jesani, IMSD, PUCL, Mumbai
17.  Mansoor Sardar, IMSD, Bhiwandi
18.  Massoma Ranalvi, IMSD, We Speak Out, Delhi
19.  Mohammed Imran, PIO, USA
20.  Muniza Khan, IMSD, CJP, Varanasi
21.  Naseeruddin Shah, Actor, Mumbai
22. Nasreen Fazelbhoy, IMSD, Mumbai
23.  Qutub Jahan, IMSD, NEEDA, Mumbai
24.  (Dr) Ram Puniyani, IMSD, Author, Activist, Mumbai
25.  Rashida Tapadar, Academic, Activist, Nagaland
26.  Ratna Pathak, Actor, Mumbai
27. Sabah Khan, IMSD, Parcham, Mumbra/Mumbai
28.  Saif Mahmood, IMSD, Supreme Court Lawyer, Delhi
29.  Shabana Azmi, Actor, Former MP, Mumbai
30.  Shabana Mashraki, IMSD, Consultant, Mumbai
31.  Shabnam Hashmi, Anhad, Delhi
32.  Shama Zaidi, Documentary Film Maker, Mumbai
33.  Shamsul Islam, Author, Delhi
34.  Sheeba Aslam Fehmi, IMSD, TV Commntator, Delhi
35.  Simantini Dhuru, Documentary Film Maker, Mumbai
36. Sohail Hashmi, IMSD, Sahmat, Delhi
37. Sultan Shahin, Editor-in chief and publisher, New Age Islam, Delhi
38. Taizoon Khorakiwala, Businessman, Philanthropist, NRI
39.  Teesta Setalvad, IMSD, CJP, SabrangIndia Online, Mumbai
40.  Yash Paranjpe, Activist, Mumbai
41.  Yousuf Saeed, Documentary Film Maker, Delhi
42.  Zakia Soman, BMMA, Delhi
43.  Zeenat Shaukat Ali, IMSD, Wisdom Foundation, Mumbai

The post IMSD condemns ‘Maulana’ Sajjad Nomani’s Talibani firman appeared first on SabrangIndia.

A snippet of one of these videos is circulating on social media where he says that girls should not be sent to colleges and schools alone and those parents who send their daughter alone, should be sentenced to Jahannum (hell).

He said that it does not matter even if the daughter is wearing a hijab and going to college, she is not to be left unaccompanied. “Even if you have to send your girls to college, meet the college Principal and request them to inform you whether she attended all classes or she bunked classes and went somewhere else.”

“If you are a father, a Muslim, then it is forbidden for you to be careless about your daughters,” he added.

These statements are probably stemming from the hijab controversy or even the rise in numbers of Muslim women enrolling in higher studies. According to the government’s All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) for 2020-21 Muslim women were higher in number compared to Muslim men in undergraduate courses and other degrees, diplomas, and certificates. This is a percentage of women already enrolled in higher studies and does not speak of the entire muslim women population. As per the 2011 census, female literacy rate among Muslims was only about 52%.

While these statements from him are grossly misogynistic and aim to kill whatever agency Muslim women have, he is known to make controversial statements. Last year in June while speaking at an event in Jaipur, on the hijab controversy, he said, “In Udupi, Mysore, Bengaluru, girls’ hijabs were pulled, try to do the same in Rajasthan and pull women’s veil”.

In 2021 when the Taliban took over Afghanistan, he celebrated the fact and congratulated the Taliban. No wonder he celebrated the Taliban taking over Afghanistan since he endorses their view that a woman must be accompanied by a man when in public.

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On February 2, 2023, during the ongoing special Budget Session of the Parliament, Lok Sabha member Shrimati Mimi Chakraborty (AITC) raised the question concerning the World Bank funded six-year project, which had been launched to improve the education and skills of young people of minority communities. She had asked for the details of projects and assistance provided to the States therein.

The Union Minister of the Ministry of Minorities Affairs, Smriti Zubin Irani, responded to the said question by informing the Lok Sabha that the Ministry had launched a Central Sector Scheme (CSS) namely Nai Manzil on 8th August 2015 with 50% of funding from the World Bank to benefit the minority youth who do not have formal school leaving certificate, i.e., those in the category of school–dropouts or educated in community education institutions like Madrasas. The scheme provided a combination of formal education (Class VIII or X) and skills and enabled the beneficiaries seek better employment and livelihoods.

She had further provided that under the said scheme, grants were not released to State Governments but to the Project Implementing Agencies (PIAS) empanelled for implementation of the scheme.

Detailing the beneficiaries of schemes, Irani submitted that under the scheme, 98,712 beneficiaries have been trained with more than 50% women beneficiaries.

The answer may be read here:

According to India CSR Network, the above-mentioned Scheme is carried out by selected Project Implementing Agencies (PIAs) which are appointed through an open and transparent procedure that invites Expressions of Interest (EOIs) from firms. Under the system, 30% of the beneficiary seats are reserved for female candidates, and 5% are reserved for disabled people from minority communities.

India CSR Network also provided a state-wise data depicting the placement and post placement support that has been given under Nai Manzil scheme since inception of the scheme till date, which is as follows:

Source: India CSR Network

Related:

SC: India is a secular country; PIL for RTE Act implementation should benefit members of all weaker sections

Union scraps Maulana Azad Scholarships for Research Scholars from Minority Communities

Centre excludes overseas humanities and social science courses from SC/ST scholarship

‘Woeful allocation’: Union budget ‘neglects, condemns’ physically challenged persons

Union Budget a Statement of ‘Sheer Hopelessness’, say Farmer Leaders

The post Women are the majority beneficiaries of World Bank-funded minority scholarships appeared first on SabrangIndia.

 There is hardly any attempt to critically engage with the ideas of Syed Ahmed Khan. There is also no reflection in the community as why after two hundred years; we seem to be grappling with the same set of issues which Syed Ahmed was beset with during his own time. The relationship with Islam and modernity, educational deficit and the impact of conservatism within Muslim society are all issues which we are confronted with even today. Syed Ahmed tried to wrestle with such issues during his time, but there is no denying the fact that his reformism has had very little impact on the Muslim society. In such a scenario, how should we evaluate his legacy?

It is often argued that Syed Ahmed Khan heralded the acceptance of modern English education amongst Indian Muslims. It is understood that before this great personality pleaded the Muslims to educate themselves in English language, they had kept away from modern and English education. Thus Syed Ahmed in this narrative becomes the saviour of Muslims and is projected as someone who brought the Muslims out of the morass of backwardness and steered them towards some kind of an enlightenment.

 It was only because of his efforts that Muslims took to English education and came out of their stupor. While due credit must be given to the Syed for establishing the MAO college which eventually blossomed into the Aligarh Muslim University, it will be perhaps be too much to eulogize him as the saviour of Muslim community.

It is incorrect to believe that before Syed Ahmed came on the scene, Muslims were reluctant to take to English education. Higher education at that time was usually the preserve of the elite as the concept of mass education did not exist. Elite from all communities were embracing higher education and Muslims were not behind. In fact the data for higher education in the then United Provinces would show that Muslims were much more represented in higher education as compared to their share in population. This is natural because in the United Provinces, Muslims were landed and at least wanted to educate their sons in the ways of the British.

 The question therefore is whether Syed Ahmed was the harbinger of modern education or whether he, like others before him understood the importance of English education and wanted Muslims to take to it. It is of course to the credit of the Syed Ahmed that he fought against the Islamic current propounded by the Mullahs that English education was forbidden for Muslims. He must be saluted for his courage that despite all odds, he persevered and in the end lived to see his dream fulfilled. But what one forgets often is that there were enough Muslims who were willing to make his dream come true. Without the students of Aligarh and the families who sent their sons to Aligarh, this dream would have been stillborn.

All this suggests that there was already an undercurrent within the elite Muslim society regarding the need for English education. Syed Ahmed became the medium to realise that goal and he did so with full conviction.

It is often argued that Syed Ahmed was trying to bring some kind of an enlightenment within Muslim society through modern English education. A closer scrutiny might reveal that this might not be so clear cut. His ideas on education were limited and he viewed the MAO college only as producing a class of educated Muslims who would be well versed with the manners of the British and consequently worthy of taking up positions in government bureaucracy. If the cornerstone of enlightenment is critique, then the Syed did not expect modern education to lead to any kind of critique of either the society in which Muslims were living at that time or even the religious worldview of Muslims.

There is nothing to suggest that Syed Ahmed critiqued the decadent and feudal life-style of Ashraf Muslims. Rather what we get is a positive estimation of the Ashraf worldview. Similarly, although Syed Ahmed did question some of the common-sense perception about Islam, he did not initiate the kind of critique which it required.

 It is also common knowledge that he would drop his criticism of religion altogether when the Mullahs started to hit out on his source of funding. Thus modernity and its relationship with Islam was not his fundamental concern. Modern education existed to refine the religious knowledge and whenever there was a contradiction, it was religion which would have the final say. What was central to his worldview was the caring of small section of Muslim interests which were landed and wanted some respectability by sending their sons to Aligarh. Modern education for him had a utilitarian value: for access to jobs and services. This is no doubt a noble intention and Muslims should be thankful to Syed Ahmed for this very endeavour. But to suggest that he had wanted to inculcate modern outlook among Muslims is perhaps reading too much.

Syed Ahmed Khan was also indifferent to the education of Muslim women. He made no effort whatsoever from which one can deduce that he viewed the education of Muslim women as a desirable project. It remains a fact that women’s education was a late starter on the campus of Aligarh. Such indifference became active hostility when it came to modern education for lower caste Muslims. Syed Ahmed was positively opposed to educating the Muslim lower castes which formed the majority of Indian Muslim population. He did not think that the lower caste Muslims possessed the required mental faculty to go for higher learning through English language.

 He actually advised them that a rudimentary learning of religious rituals and some mathematics would be all that should suffice for them. This also becomes clear when we see his opposition to the reforms of the provincial governments. He was opposed to such political reforms because he felt that even low caste Muslims and Hindus will get into such councils and stand at par with the upper castes. It is almost as if he thought that low castes were racially inferior to upper castes. It is not surprising therefore that he would blame the low caste Muslim Ansari for taking part in the revolt of 1857.

This is certainly not to suggest that there is nothing to learn from Syed Ahmed. His take on Islamic conservatism and his commentary of the Quran really need to be engaged with today. But we should also not put him on a pedestal and argue that in a sense he is beyond critique. His position on caste was in many ways similar to that of BalGangadharTilak, who was also similarly opposed to the political and social empowerment of lower caste Hindus. Syed Ahmed therefore must be understood as a product of his times. By placing him beyond the pale of history and writing nothing but eulogies on him, we are actually doing a great deal of disservice to him and the Muslim community at large.

Arshad Alam is a www.NewAgeIslam.com columnist.

Courtesy: NewAgeIslam.com
 

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