The victim, who had been married for just two months, recounted the traumatic experience. She asked people gathered there to give a phone to call for help, but was rebuffed.

In #UttarPradesh‘s #Aligarh, a 22 year old girl named #Sultana was eve teased and molested by half a dozen men in #DelhiAligarhTrain, when her husband raised objection he was beaten by the miscreants, and instead of arresting the eve teasers police arrested her husband.. pic.twitter.com/ZevbEXHqEx

— Hate Detector (@HateDetectors) November 15, 2024

The attackers even assaulted her husband with belts at Aligarh Railway Station, right in front of her and her in-laws. To make matters worse, the assailants threatened the victim with a gun. She alleged that a group of other people also joined in beating him up further.

People remained mute spectator, Police chosen selective action

The woman said that, “The goons began staring at me as soon as the train left Delhi. When I objected, they tried to touch me. My husband stepped in to defend me, but he was attacked. Despite my pleas for help, other passengers just watched silently” as Times of India reported,

Relatives of the couple soon arrived at the station and staged a protest in response to the incident. Following the public outcry, the GRP released the husband and registered a case at Aligarh GRP Police Station against the attackers. Police confirmed that one of the accused, Jitu Singh, a resident of Usmanpur Khandauli in Agra, has been arrested. However, three others, including Mahesh from Singh Kuberpur, remain at large, while two more suspects have yet to be identified.

Notably, GRP SHO Shailendra Yadav confirmed that a case had been registered following the victim’s husband’s complaint. The charges include Section 74 (assault or use of criminal force against a woman with intent to outrage her modesty), Section 115-2 (voluntarily causing hurt), and Section 352 (insult that provokes a breach of peace) of BNS, 2023. The couple, married just two months ago, had travelled from Delhi to Aligarh to attend a family wedding. The husband, who runs a clothing business, has been living in Delhi since their marriage.

Alarming rise in anti-Muslim attacks in Train

There has been a concerning surge in attacks on Muslim passengers on trains in recent years. This disturbing trend is exemplified by several incidents, including, in August, 2024, an elderly Muslim man was brutally beaten by fellow passengers on a train near Nashik district, Maharashtra, in September, 2024,  a group of Madrasa students traveling in a general coach were assaulted by two allegedly intoxicated assailants in route to Mumbai.

In July 2023, a shocking incident occurred on the Jaipur-Mumbai Central Superfast Express, where a Railway Protection Force (RPF) constable, Chetan Singh, fatally shot four individuals, including an Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) and three Muslim passengers, near Palghar Railway Station in Mumbai Suburbs.

Related:

Uttar Pradesh: Where women live in fear

Crimes against women highest in Uttar Pradesh: NCRB 2020 report

Violence and assault targeting Dalits rock Uttar Pradesh

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Since 2014, the government in power has strategically corrupted the autonomy of the judicial system. The majoritarian regime in power has also located the patriarchy in Islam and within Muslim personal laws. Their attempt to smash “this patriarchy and save Muslim women” has, to some extent, harmed India’s secular fabric and democratic ethos, perhaps, for them, merely collateral damage in their march to a morphed theocratic state.

We write this with concern and urgency as the government is making us –Muslim women–a ploy and  a bait to criminalise minority communities and attack constitutionalism. At this present juncture, we assert our position for a gender-just law that safeguards our rights as well as that of a Muslim community from dominant authoritarianism.

Muslim women’s struggles and the failure of religious leadership

For years, the Muslim women leadership has insisted, in their own, specific articulation, based on their lived experiences, on the streets and in Parliament, to refute and refuse discriminatory practices within Muslim Personal Law and put forth their demand for a gender-just law.

We have profoundly experienced that all personal laws discriminate against all women. These laws do not sanction rights to those who challenge the institution of family, religion, and customs. Therefore, we speak from the standpoint of those who are directly affected by the family laws that remain gender unjust.

Despite spearheading the movement to bring reforms within our own communities, including the formulation of Nikah-Nama, protesting against fatwas and advocating reforms in discriminatory personal laws, the state has never taken any steps to hear our concerns and protect our rights effectively.

On the contrary, it is the Muslim religious leaders and other conservative forces that have failed our community. Their actions and words have impacted the socio-political reality of our community.  Muslim women have been struggling against forces within the community who seek to control their bodies under the guise of protecting the religion by chanting ‘Islam is in Danger’.  For example, statements by Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, who declared, “We cannot accept any law that is against the Sharia because a Muslim can compromise with anything but Sharia and religion”, and from politicians like the Samajwadi Party MP, emphasising adherence to Quranic instructions highlight their rigid adherence to religious principles. This rigid adherence places disproportionate burdens of family honour, morality, and religious sanctity on women’s bodies, perpetuating patriarchal violence in the name of our liberation.

The All-India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), claiming to speak for the rights of (all) the Muslim community, with its conservative positions on the issue of reforms within the Muslim Personal Law, has further thrown us into the hands of the draconian regime.

During the Shah Bano case, we witnessed attempts to suppress her ability to dissent in the name of religion. Similarly, in today’s context, Muslim women’s space for dissent is restricted under the pretext of her Qaum – community allegiance with the refrain that ‘yeh waqt sahi nahi hai – this is not the right time.’

Time and again, we have witnessed that it is the fundamentalist forces suppressed voices advocating for Muslim women’s rights, falsely claiming that changes in the personal law contradict the religion. And we continue to ask how long the community and the Muslim religious groups will remain immutable?

We, as part of the women’s movement, collectively organised ourselves, went to the courtrooms and fought to bring a new discourse from the lens of a feminist perspective on MPL and its aspects, such as polygamy, halala, and inheritance rights, and started challenging religious fundamentalism.

The Uttarakhand’s Uniform Civil Code is still not tenable.

Marking National Muslim Women’s Day on August 1 serves as a stark reminder of how this government have only sought to appropriate our struggles while simultaneously criminalising our community. It is crucial to highlight that whenever Muslim women sought recourse in the court, the Supreme Court consistently addressed their concerns through the lens of religion and identity politics rather than adhering to the constitutional provisions meant to protect their rights.

This celebratory impulse over the Uttarakhand UCC bill, especially for bringing ‘genuine’ secularism and gender justice, eludes crucial questions of personal freedoms, autonomy and diverse lived experiences and reality.

The state is resorting to traditional methods to curb the agency of women in heteronormative live-in relationships, all the while overlooking the existing protections outlined in the Domestic Violence Act of 2005.

Much has been written about how Uttarakhand’s UCC and its provisions regarding live-in relationships, which, as per the state’s convoluted logic, ensure and safeguard the rights of women.

These are also matters concerning Muslim women, who may once again find themselves subjected to suffering at the hands of the institution of family, the state, and third parties. Here, the third party could be the involvement of any institution, from community Khaps, Jamaats to even Fatwa-judgements. The punitive measures after being unable to register the live-in relationships are in no way a protective measure but to further surveil the relationships that challenge the institution of marriage.

Although Uttarakhand’s UCC has, to some extent, addressed the unequal laws on halala, iddat and bigamy, divorce, property, maintenance, and inheritance. Nevertheless, it serves as a great example of what a myopic view of gender equality and justice would be.

The Muslim community is in itself a diverse community that consists of persons who are from marginalised gender and sexuality. Uttarakhand’s UCC excludes the diverse forms of relationships and civil partnerships. Furthermore, it does not provide any mechanisms for ensuring social security for women from vulnerable groups.

Lately, every discussion around Muslim women’s rights has solely revolved around personal laws. While Muslim women, already a minority within a minority, are often limited to discussions about their headscarves, religion, and marriage, how can we advocate for her rights that extend beyond discriminatory personal laws?

Uttarakhand’s UCC is not aimed at Muslim women; it is also not aimed at the Muslim community, but it is solely aimed at the Hindutva extremists all over India.

We urge religious organisations not to attribute our political voice to the current government’s agenda. We need to understand that these are longstanding battles that we have been fighting independently.

To the AIMPLB and other religious organisations often in the limelight, we emphasise that despite the attention, we continue to lack our fundamental rights and entitlements. It’s an appeal not to disregard the question of patriarchy and religious conservatism within the community while dealing with the repeated onslaught of democratic rights of the Muslim community.

“Your statements and positions in the media only serve to enable the current government to exploit our cause. It is crucial for us to regain our political consciousness, build novel strategies to fight against the Hindutva onslaught and address these issues on our own terms.”

(Hasina Khan, a founder member of Bebaak Collective is a gender rights activist based in Mumbai. Mridul Kaintura is a PhD research scholar at TISS, Mumbai)

Related:

Destroying the basic standards of legislation- the Uttarakhand Model of UCC

Uttarakhand: Women’s groups reject UCC say provisions are unconstitutional, criminalises constitutional behavior, Muslims

Uttarakhand state assembly tables UCC Bill amidst protests by opposition members

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However, according to The Observer Post, the 58-year-old Jahanara Bibi made a lasting impact on the lives of several families after she became the first person in the region to donate organs after passing away. The decision has provided a new lease on life for four individuals at Kolkata’s SSKM Hospital. The medical team at SSKM further thanked Jahanara Bibi’s family for the generous donation. 

According to the report, Jahanara Bibi and her son were returning home on a bike a few days ago when she suffered a cerebral stroke and collapsed on the road. She was swiftly taken to Murshidabad Medical College Hospital and then she was later referred to SSKM Hospital in Kolkata for advanced care. But despite undergoing extensive treatment at the trauma care centre, she was declared brain-dead on December 7. Mehbub Alam, Jahanara Bibi’s son, recounted the horrific incident explaining how his mother fell while riding the bike, leading to a cerebral stroke and yet despite the tireless efforts of doctors and the family, she could not be saved. 

Jahanara Kabir was also incidentally the sister of Humayun Kabir who is the MLA of Bharatpur Assembly in Murshidabad from the All India Trinamool Congress. Kabir stood by his sister’s side during her treatment till the very end. When the medical team suggested posthumous organ donation, realising further treatment was futile, the family had initially shown hesitation, but after persuasion, including from Jahanara’s brother, Kabir, they consented to the donation. 

Reflecting on the decision, Humayun Kabir stated, “Religion encourages donation, and I believe there’s no greater donation than posthumous organ donation. Convincing my sister’s family for organ donation was essential. Her organs have brought new life to four people.”

However, according to the report, the hospital tried its best to find a suitable recipient for Jahanara’s heart, but could not find a suitable recipient. Following this, Jahanara’s heart was sent to Hyderabad, where a 72-year-old woman underwent a successful heart transplant at the Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences. Furthermore, Jahanara’s liver too found a new life in the body of a 25-year-old woman at SSKM, and furthermore, her kidneys brought renewed hope to two young people, aged 21 and 35. Updates from the recipients of the organs reveals that the organs have been transferred successfully and the patients are responding with positive results. 

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Countering hate thru’ spreading #EverydayHarmony the CJP Way: Int’l Day against Hate Speech

Paving a path to peace: CJP’s efforts at uniting India

Here’s why CJP is holding interfaith meetings & reviving Mohalla Committees

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A Muslim woman resident of Uttar Pradesh has reportedly claimed that her family has been histile towards her as she had voted for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in the recent Assembly elections. The woman, identified as Uzma in a report by the Hindustan, has claimed that her angry in-laws beat her and threw her out of the house.

She added that she was also threatened with divorced accused her in-laws of also threatening to kill her brother if he complained to the police. 

Uzma, identified in the report as the daughter of Tahir Ansari, resident of Ejaz Nagar Gautia, was married in January 2021 to one Taslim Ansari. The couple is from the same area and reportedly had a love marriage.

After she cast her vote recently, Uzma reportedly told her in-laws that she had voted for the BJP. According to the news report, the family, especially her brother-in-law Arif and uncle were enraged, and allegedly assaulted her. They also allegedly threatened her that her husband will “divorce her”. According to the news report, her father Tahir Ansari is a labourer and after his “daughter was kicked out of the house by her in-laws” has sought help from the police. 

Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi, National General Secretary of Tanzeem Ulama-e-Islam told the media that voting is a constitutional right and a person can vote for a candidate of their own choice. He added that if the woman’s in-laws or husband are threatening to divorce her because she voted for BJP, then they were guilty in the eyes of the Islamic laws as well.

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UP: Dadri Muslims disconnected from the city for three months!
Is Bennett University violating students’ right to protest?
Assembly Election Results 2022 Whither Pluralism: Democracy?

The post Post Poll Watch: Muslim woman allegedly threatened with triple-talaq after voting for BJP appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The petitioners- Yasmeen Zuber Ahmad Peerzade and her husband Zuber Ahmad Nazir Ahmad Peerzade – in their petition said,  “there is nothing in the Quran and the Hadith that requires gender segregation.” It further stated, “the act of prohibition of females from entering a Mosque is void and unconstitutional as such practices are not only repugnant to the basic dignity of a woman as an individual but also violative of the fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 14, 15, 21 and 25 of the Constitution.”

The petitioners have claimed that they had written letters to the authorities of the Mohammadiya Jama Masjid, Bopodi, Pune seeking permission for women to enter, but the authorities refrained from giving permission citing no precedent. Aggrieved by this, they decided to approach the highest judicial authority. They mentioned in the SC that the State has failed to ensure the basic dignity and equality of women in general and Muslim women in particular especially in matters pertaining to women’s entry in to the mosque, wearing a burqa, etc.

They further said that currently women in the Sunni faction are barred from entering the mosque while the Jamaat-e-Islami and Mujahid factions do not have such barriers. However, there are separate entries and enclosures for worship for both men and women. This violates the fundamental right to equality. To this, a bench of Justices S A Bobde and S Abdul Nazeer enquired whether Article 14 can be applied against the individuals and can a mosque, temple or a church be treated as a state since Article 14 refers to the state action. The petitioner’s lawyer, Ashutosh Dubey, said that the mosques were receiving grants from the State and can thus be treated as a State actor. However, the bench wasn’t satisfied with this reply.

It further asked the advocate about other places where women are allowed entry in the mosques. To this, Dubey said, “..it is submitted that there is no such gender discrimination to offer worship in Mecca, the holy city. The faithful, both men and women, together circle the Kaaba.” It further added that women are allowed in mosques in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, US, UK and Singapore. The judges then enquired about similar cases in the Bombay and Kerala High Court to which the advocate replied that the women entry was permitted in to the Haji Ali Dargah in Mumbai while the Kerala High court had dismissed the petition on the grounds that the petitioners were Hindus and they will take up the case when the affected people (Muslims) approach them.

The petitioner’s counsel then cited the SC judgement in the Sabarimala case where four of the five judges had ruled that “religion cannot be used as cover to deny rights of worship to women” thereby allowing women of all ages to enter the sanctum sanctorum of the Sabarimala temple. He then prayed for relief on behalf of the petitioners.

Justice Bobde issued the notice saying, “We are only hearing you, and may be will hear you in the future, because of Sabarimala Judgment. But you are not giving any satisfactory answer. We’ll see..”

There are diverging opinions among experts in Islamic theology concerning gender segregation. Ahmad Kutty, an Islamic theologian in Canada has said that gender segregation isn’t required in Islam and there was no discrimination among the two sexes during the time of Prophet Muhammad. Contrarily, Abdul-Rahman al-Barrak, another Islamic theologian in Saudi Arabia has issued a death warrant through a fatwa against those who allow the mixing of the sexes.

It is to be seen whether the dissenting opinion of Justice Indu Malhotra in the Sabarimala case where she said, “..notions of rationality cannot be invoked in matters of religion by courts,” will influence the decision of the present case. Interestingly, the petition even mentioned the Uniform Civil Code, which is also a part of the BJP manifesto for the 2019 general elections. It said, “Despite the observations of this Hon’ble Court for the past few decades, Uniform Civil Code (UCC) remains an elusive Constitutional goal that the Courts have fairly refrained from enforcing through directions and the Legislature has dispassionately ignored except by way of paying some lip service.”

Time and again, citizens have knocked at the door of the judiciary seeking their intervention in unjust and unequal religious rules. Constitutional principles and the fundamental rights guaranteed by it have formed the basis for various pleas regarding religious matters, including those made by the Muslim community. Apart from the Haji Ali Dargah judgement, the Shayara Bano verdict (where Justice Abdul Nazeer was on this bench) is a case in point for Muslim women’s quest for equality.

With demands for gender-just laws increasing and the unsettling debate over the UCC, the decision of the Supreme Court will be awaited as it will shape the further course of action in the fight towards a just and equal society.
 

The post “Ready to Hear you Because of Sabarimala Judgement”- SC on a Plea Seeking Permission for Women’s Entry in Mosques appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Saudi Arabia is infamous for its unfair gender rules, under which women cannot drive and always have to be accompanied by a male while travelling.

How does one criticise this without actually breaking this law?

How about depicting women approvingly getting into the back seat of a car while a young boy sits at the wheel? That’s how a new music video begins. It’s titled Hwages, which roughly translates to “Concerns”.

Directed by Majed Alesa and produced by 8IES Studios, the video hits out at Saudi Arabia’s male guardianship by portraying men who disapprovingly look at niqab-clad women play basketball, skateboard and dance. The video also shows them in authoritarian roles such as government officials guarding a cutout of Donald Trump on a podium.

Saudi activist Manal al-Sharif, who fights for women’s rights, shared the video on Twitter and praised it for cleverly mocking the archaic patriarchal society.

According to Al Arabiya, the lyrics were inspired from a 2014 low-quality production video below.

Uploaded on December 23, 2016, Hwages has since then made waves across the world, garnering over 2 million views.

Courtesy: Scroll.in

The post Catchy music video? No, it’s actually a protest against the lack of equal rights for Saudi women appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The Asian Age, October 25:

"The appointment of Dr K G Rastogi , a retired NCERT professor, by human resources ministry headed by Dr Murli Manohar Joshi is for the current academic year. Dr Rastogi has already sat as an observer at interviews conducted for the post of professor in the department of groups for special needs. In his autobiographical Aap Beeti, Krishna Gopal Rastogi 62, discloses how he took out his gun and shot a woman in a Muslim locality somewhere between Rourkee and Hardwar during the Hindu Muslim riots which broke out immediately after Partition of India in 1947. The autobiography has been dedicated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and its foreword has been written by the RSS joint Secretary Mr K. S. Sudarshan.

In a chapter entitled Pracharak Ka Jeevan Mr Rastogi provides a detailed account of the background in which the shooting took place. During those days of struggle both Hindus and Muslims were uniting themselves and attacking each other. The Muslims were more united in comparision to the Hindus. They used to prepare for the attack and used to attack first. As a strategy for our security we decided that from where ever we got information about Muslim attacks we should attack first.

One such incident occurred in a locality called Puran Kaliyar, a place in between Hardwar and Rourkee. This was a Muslim locality. They were fully prepared to attack us They had spears swords, guns and small cannons. When we came to know this we took 250 people which included goons from Rourkee and attacked the Muslim locality and people from both sides died…

And then about the actual incident, " A strange incident happened in the locality as the attackers (read Hindus) started fighting with each other over a beautiful woman found in one house where the killing was going on. The attackers forgot their mission and started claiming the woman. I threatened them and then a solution came to my mind. I shot her dead". At no point, it appears, did the thought of turning his gun on the attackers cross Mr. Rastogi’s mind.

Elsewhere in the book he mentions how Mahatma Gandhi,while pained by the fallout of Partition, angered some people by his insistence of generosity towards Pakistan. He writes " 1947 passed off peacefully I passed B.A and in the 30 odd villages in my area the shakha was started. There were riots in the country and people were moving across the two borders . Mahtama Gandhi was pained at all this …… The generosity of the Hindu mind could not tolerate this. The partition of the country was based on the two nation theory and all sorts of inhuman treatments were meted out to the Hindus in Pakistan, but Gandhiji did not consider the ouster of Muslims from India as correct. Jinnah was even offered the Prime Ministership of undivided India by Gandhiji. Even after partition Pakistan was given crores of rupees for the canal thanks to Gandhiji, Nathuram Godse silenced him forever on January 30th, 1948."

Rastogi is Joshi’s latest appointment to the NCERT selection committe. This leaves little to the imagination of what the BJP/RSS plans are in the sphere of education, this time round when they head the NDA government in power at the centre.

Archived from Communalism Combat, November 1999, Year 7  No. 53, Saffronwatch

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