National

A Veil Is Lifted

Muslim women representatives are all for the reservation bill

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A Veil Is Lifted
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Through the tumultuous week leading to the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill in the Rajya Sabha, the Yadav troika of Mulayam Singh, Laloo and Sharad had made it a point to focus on “the thousands of hapless Muslim women who would not benefit” from it. The argument, of course, is that if the bill becomes codified law, poor Muslim women and those from other backward classes would be left behind, ignored as the political space in Parliament and state assemblies gets usurped by the rapacious ‘bahu-beti-parkati’ brigade.

And you couldn’t blame them, for the threat of losing nearly 181 seats in the Lok Sabha and 1,370-odd seats in state assemblies loomed large. While they shouted and obstructed Parliament functioning, their equally vociferous charges were being bundled out of the Rajya Sabha, a spectacle closely chronicled by the media. From all accounts, all these men were speaking on behalf of the countless women who had no voice.

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As the votaries and the naysayers debate the bill on the now familiar caste/religious community lines, what about the women themselves from, say, the Muslim community? Do Muslim women aspiring for a role in public life want a separate quota? And if so, does it have to conform to the same philosophy which guided reservations for scheduled castes/tribes and other backward classes? Does it make sense to speak of a sub-quota?

Well, Outlook spoke to some elected representatives among Muslim women and they were hardly amused at how they are being used as shields by political leaders opposed to the bill. Most of them said the concerns expressed have to be debated, but “let us take the first step”. As senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Mohsina Kidwai says, “Don’t speak for us. And don’t divide us. Let us speak for ourselves.”

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“What have these men who oppose it done for women in their own parties?”
Najma Heptullah, Rajya Sabha MP, BJP

Most of the women are not oblivious to the fact that despite 62 years of free democracy, political space remains a scarce resource. “As for the men expressing concern on our behalf, how many of them have actually worked towards ensuring our participation?” asks Najma Heptullah, now Rajya Sabha MP from the BJP which played a crucial role in the passage of the bill.

Kidwai and her sister MPs are aware of their dismal numbers in Parliament and assemblies. As the accompanying infographic shows, their presence ranges between none and three. While the Muslim community is a coveted votebank for the Yadav troika, what of the women? Do they have a voice? In the present Lok Sabha, there are three Muslim women—all from political families. It’s the same pattern in the Rajya Sabha. Their numbers have averaged between 3-5 in both houses in the last 14 years.

The first step towards making women baghidars (partners) in governance was taken in the Panchayati Raj Bill in 1994, which made provisions for a 33 per cent reservation of women in the three tiers of local governance. That was at the executive level where women took decisions. Women sarpanches have now become common even among the most patriarchal societies. The Women’s Reservation Bill, on the other hand, is seen as filling a crucial gap in legislatures—at the Centre and the state—to make allowance for 50 per cent of the population to have a say in the decision-making process.

Some of the women from the zilla parishads are now looking at the bill as a political ladder to state assemblies, and from there to Parliament. Can they aspire for something bigger? Safia Khan, the zilla pramukh from Alwar, Rajasthan, says it is natural for women too to desire for higher political positions. Bader Sayeed, AIADMK MLA and the lone Muslim woman in the Tamil Nadu assembly, is a bit more impatient, “Quotas or no quotas for Muslims can wait, and be decided by the powers that be. Let Muslim women voters come out in big numbers to vote first before the issue of quota comes up. When they do that, the feeling will seep in that today I can vote and tomorrow I can even stand for elections. So I say, let’s take power, grab power as a first step.”

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“The bill, in its present form, won’t help. I’m from a backward caste...but not all women are.”
Tabassum Hasan, BSP MP, Kairana

Still, there are also women who think the bill has to be debated first, before being passed. Tabassum Hasan of the BSP says there will be an actual power shift only with the entry of women from backward classes and communities like hers. “The bill, in its present form, does not help. I am from a backward caste but not all women are backward,” she reasons. Tabassum fought from Kairana on a seat held by her husband for more than 22 years. She finds nothing unusual in women from political families aspiring for political office. “If a bureaucrat’s son or an architect’s son takes to his father’s work, does anyone object? Why single out the political class?” she asks.

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Tabassum, like others, is echoing the sentiments of her political boss Mayawati. But she is not alone. Both Yasmeen Sultana, a corporator from Hyderabad and representing the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM), and Mallika Begum from the Congress feel reservations will benefit only upper-caste and rich women who can afford to spend crores in an election. Both of them assert that it makes sense to introduce a quota within this quota for Muslim and OBC women. Only then can elections be fought on an equal footing. Mallika Begum is categorical that the bill will hit the progress of Muslim women unless the government acts to formally reserve seats for them.

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“Unless there is reservation, there’s no way women will be elected to Parliament....”
Mausam Noor, Congress MP, Malda

On the other hand, Mausam Noor, Congress MP from red bastion Bengal, says there is no provision for a sub-quota in a secular country. “I represent Malda constituency in West Bengal where the population is a mixed one with scheduled castes, Muslims and Hindus in equal number. But I am aware that unless there is reservation, there is no way women can come up.” Malda has traditionally been a Congress bastion (with one exception when the CPI(M) broke Mausam’s uncle A.B.A. Ghani Khan Chaudhury’s sway) but is not critical of the provision for rotation in the seats.

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“Even the Constitution says no separate Muslim reservation. Why make a fuss?”
Mafuja Khatun, CPI(M) MLA, Kumarganj, WB

Others like Mafuja Khatun, a CPI(M) MLA from West Bengal, says, “I’ll support the bill even if it doesn’t have a quota for Muslim women. Even the Constitution does not permit separate Muslim reservation. Then why make a fuss about it?”

Fuss over it or not, numbers do tell a dismal story. Even in progressive Kerala with its high literacy levels, only one out of the total seven women in the 140-member assembly is a Muslim. As K. Saleekha, CPI(M) MLA from Sreekrishnapuram in Palakkad district, puts it, “Religious orthodoxy and the bigotry of the clerics are to blame for the poor representation of Muslim women in state politics. If the bill is passed all parties, including the Indian Union Muslim League, would have to field women in the reserved constituencies...and those who still renege on the legislative commitment would stand exposed.”

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In the Maharashtra state legislative assembly, convened in October 2009 after a fiercely fought election, there is no Muslim woman MLA. There is a Muslim woman mlc (legislative council) though, Fauzia Khan, who is now a minister of state. Khan doesn’t boast of a typical political family background, instead she was handpicked by ncp leader R.R. Patil and groomed by Sharad Pawar to be an mlc thanks to her grasp of women and education issues. But the point to note is that even she was not elected—as an mlc, she was nominated.

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“Don’t speak for us women... and don’t divide us. Let us speak for ourselves.”
Mohsina Kidwai, RS MP, Congress

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Within the state Congress now, there is some degree of contrition that assembly elections did not bring forth a single Muslim woman into the Maharashtra legislature. Some effort is being made now to see if attempts were made to give Muslim and OBC women tickets, even whether women from these communities had approached the party for representation. Sources say the party high command has asked for details.

Meanwhile, thanks to the 33 per cent reservation for women in local government bodies, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (bmc), the country’s largest and richest civic body with 227 councillors and an annual budget of Rs 17,000 crore, now has 90 women sitting and debating in the grand central hall. Of these, 12 are Muslim women, elected from Muslim-dominated areas of Mumbai.

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Waquarunissa Ansari, corporator/ councillor elected from Umarkhadi, says the bill should be passed. “I don’t think we need reservation within reservation. It’s the quality of the women that matters, not just the caste or religion,” she says. On the other hand, Asma Shaikh, corporator elected from Bainganwadi (Govandi), is seeking a quota within quota. “I am here only thanks to the reservation in urban self-government bodies. We Muslims get elected only from Muslim areas because we are less educated than others. We may not stand a chance in general areas....also, the community and families believe that if we work alongside other women, we too will become modern.”

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It’s difficult to predict the course of events once the bill is put to vote in the Lok Sabha. But for many women, the Upper House passing it itself has been a first step towards equality. With time, they say they will be able to assert themselves. And reservation holds the key for their assertion.

(Anuradha Raman with Pushpa Iyengar, John Mary, Madhavi Tata, Dola Mitra and the Mumbai bureau)

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