Mamata, Muslim Women & Triple Talaq

The photograph of a woman tied to a tree with a gaggle of policemen and onlookers gawking at her may have shocked some newspaper readers in the state. But it did not evoke any condemnation or public outrage. Neither political parties nor the state Government reacted to the report of the woman punished ostensibly by village elders for daring to return to her own village to attend a family wedding. She had been driven out of the village after she had complained to the police against the theft of construction material and named some villagers. Ostracised by the orders of village elders, even the police appeared helpless and failed to intervene.

She was lucky. The state has been witness to much worse and women, especially women belonging to the minority community, have often been stripped, belted and lynched by the orders of community leaders. The lady's eight year old son has reportedly lapsed into a state of shock while her brother, a resident of the village in Malda, was quoted as saying that he was in no position to go against the village elders. But even the top brass of the state police are yet to seek an explanation from the policemen who remained mute spectators.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee and ruling Trinamool Congress have been criticised for "appeasement" of Muslim priests, notably her decision to pay a monthly stipend of Rs 2,500 to the state's Muslim clerics (Imams). But Muslim women feel let down. "This move had actually saddened Muslim women," claims Khadija Banu, founder-director of the Rokeya Nari Unnayan Samiti.

"When Mamata came to power the Muslim women were overjoyed. They wept with happiness saying 'finally we have a woman as chief minister and also someone who does not hate Muslims, so now our needs will be taken care of.' These very women felt let down when the CM announced the stipend for the Imams. Some of them came to me and said, 'How could she do this? She can pay the Moulavis who don't need so much money and yet do nothing for us?'

Research scholar Hasnara Khatun agrees. "Muslim women were really taken in with Didi. We all were. She seemed to genuinely care for us, our community. But after she came to power things have changed. Now the women of our community merely smile sadly when she wears a hijab and offers Namaaz and Iftari after Ramzan. Because we can see through it."

Ruksana Begum, a 60-year-old Calcutta tailor's husband brought home another wife one fine day 30 years ago and then gave her an on-the-spot divorce when she demanded an explanation. Recalling the incident, she says, "It made my blood boil when I saw her face and how she was clinging to my husband. I went into a fit of rage. And then suddenly he was shouting 'talaq' at me. And it was all over. I went back to my parents' home and took training in sewing and stitching and brought up my son single handedly."

She endorses the NDA Government's plan to evolve a uniform civil code but with a caveat. "Yes, it would be good if they do away with this harsh law against us, though it no longer matters to me. Maybe it will save other unfortunate Muslim women in the future," she says. But she also hastens to add that her blood boils even more when she thinks of the Gujarat riots. So for her voting for the BJP is not an option.

It's unrealistic for Muslim women to expect political parties to solve their problems, says Hasnara Khatun(27), a research scholar at Jadavpur University. "Political parties do not have the will or inclination to 'solve' problems. Gaining power by winning elections and then retaining power at all costs is the primary goal of most parties," she points out dispassionately.

While political parties and Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal are accused of appeasing Muslims, appeasing Muslim women has never been an issue. Not even in West Bengal where the Muslim voters constitute 28 per cent of all voters and half of whom are women. Why is that?

"In most Muslim communities, especially amongst the poor, illiterate, uneducated and downtrodden, women don't have any decision-making power," observes Farzana Choudhury, former CPI-M Mayor-in-Council at the Calcutta Municipal Corporation. "Sure, they do exercise their franchise and cast their ballot but only in name. In most cases they are told by the male members of the family whom to vote for. 'Put the stamp beside this and that symbol,' they are ordered and they comply. They don't really make personal choices or deliberate on candidates and issues before making a choice."

Choudhury, who is head of a Muslim women's welfare organisation in Calcutta's Muslim-dominated Park Circus feels that "the predicament of Indian Muslim women — that is, those who belong to the lower economic strata — is damning because no political party stands to gain anything by catering to her needs."

"Appeasement of the Muslim votebank' is actually appeasing the Moulavis — who are traditionally fundamentalists and hardliners and they do control the way the community will vote," says Khadija Banu. "They decide whom, which party, which candidate, the community would vote for. It is also they who are in charge of issuing fatwas, doling out punishments and since most often it is the Muslim women who are at the receiving end of such fatwas and punishment, the political parties, by appeasing hardliners and fundamentalists are actually working to the detriment of Muslim women voters."

There is consensus, cutting across political parties, about the sorry plight of Muslim women. "It is unfortunate but it is a fact that it (the Muslim community) is a male-dominated society," admits Adhir Ranjan Choudhury, former union minister of state for Railways and Congress MP from Murshidabad, one of the three Muslim-majority districts in the state. "It is a fact that political parties don't pay too much attention to their specific needs because they focus more on the community as a whole. But there really is a need to look at the different set of problems and demands and these should be addressed more conscientiously."

CPI-M member of Parliament and Politburo member Mohammad Salim said "Though the Left Front had brought in a number of reforms as far as gender equality is concerned including 33 percent reservation for women which has also positively impacted the participation of Muslim women in the electoral process, by and large the decision-making and how a family will vote is ultimately left up to the head of the family, who is more often than not a male member." However, Salim points out that in comparison to other, namely north Indian states, West Bengal is more progressive. He claims that as much as 85 percent of the Muslim vote is cast by women.

Agreeing that West Bengal is perhaps a notch better than the situation of Muslim women in other states, research scholar Hasnara Khatoon says that in her village in Arambagh district, polygamy is looked down upon and even talaq is frowned upon and a man can only divorce his wife if the community feels he has a legitimate reason like childlessness or promiscuity of his first wife.

Yet, political parties do not want to rub the hardliners, or political decisions makers the wrong way, even in West Bengal and in spite of its tag as a more progressive state.

During the CPI-M reign, author Taslima Nasrin's permission to stay in Calcutta was cut short and she was hounded out. It was seen as a sign by the then government of attempting to appease the Moulavis who had issued a series of fatwas against her for the "anti-Islamic" content of her books. Not much has changed for the Muslim woman since then, feel a significant number of them.