Two Circles published an article about the concerns of a few muslims about the successive Governments. Though it made mostly valid points, here is what I find really funny:
Samina Khan (31) is a research scholar of English literature. She doesn’t see any positive step taken by the NDA government of Bihar apart from the usual steps taken by any government. She talks especially of the serious and concrete steps for the overall development of Muslim women of the state.
She says that only distributing bicycles won’t do anything. She says that Muslim women are doubly marginalized as they are minority within the minority. For the development of Muslim women first of all the awareness among the Muslim men has to be increased to such a level that they are able to realize that the education and assertion of women’s identity won’t be a threat to them.
She criticizes the Central government for its laidback attitude towards the Women’s Reservation Bill, although she considers the RTI Act and NREGA as some of the positive steps taken by the UPA government. [Two Cricles]
Note the qualifiers muslim women and muslim men. I know for certain that the Government of India does carry out a campaign to uplift women. But she is not talking about any women but muslim women oppressed by muslim men. Firstly, doesn’t Islam uplift women and give them unprecedented freedom? Probably not. If so, all this woman needed was to point muslim men to the teachings of Islam. Islamic sources have overwhelmingly established superiority of men over women – they are better off staying at home. Why reform a community which follows a flawless ideology?
For the government, to interfere and tilt the balance, it will have to face resistance from religious quarters. Are muslim women ready to raise a voice against the flaws in their religious ideology and call for reforms?
It is a delicate balancing act, the government must ensure that it is not percived anti-muslim, it should seem that it is working for the upliftment women and not interfeing in the belief of muslims. For this to happen, muslim women should openly acknowledge the flaws of their community and ideology and demand reforms, unless then the blame is certainly misplaced. Are they willing to do so?
Filed under: India, Islam | Tagged: Government, Islam, Muslim, Muslim women
