We Muslims proudly proclaim that Islam is the only religion that from its
very inception gave justice, honour and dignity to women. But from the spate of
fatwas in the recent past it is obvious that the high priests of Islam
remain a bastion of male supremacy. Among educated Muslim circles today, you
frequently hear the refrain: "Our ulema have made us a laughing stock
before the world." But drawing room conversations are no longer adequate. We
must either stop parroting the boast about Islam teaching gender justice or
publicly challenge the outdated, outmoded world view of our ulema.
In September last year, Gudiya from Meerut district made front page news. She
had got married to an army jawan, Mohammad Arif, in 1999. Soon after, Arif went
missing from his posting and was declared a deserter. After waiting for him for
four years, Gudiya remarried another man, Taufeeq, and soon fell pregnant.
During her pregnancy, news came that Arif was no deserter but was in a Pakistani
jail. Released from imprisonment, he returned home only to find his wife had
remarried and was pregnant.
What was Gudiya to do? Nobody asked her that question. The local panchayat
decided that she belonged to her first husband while her unborn child would go
to Taufeeq. Through TV debates and other media, Islamic scholars and the
ulema endorsed the panchayat’s decision as being in accordance with
Islamic principles. No one bothered about Gudiya.
In June this year, the Darul Uloom, Deoband, pronounced that Imrana, a woman
from Muzaffarnagar who had allegedly been raped by her father-in-law, Ali
Mohammad, was no longer lawfully married to her husband, Noor Elahi. In short,
Imrana was asked to pay for the crime committed by her father-in-law. Weeks
later, the same seminary issued another fatwa proclaiming that Muslim
women must ideally not contest panchayat elections, and never without a
veil. In other words, the venerable maulana wants people to elect as
their representative a woman whose face they must not see, before or after the
polls.
But the latest pearls of wisdom have emanated from the 130-year-old Jamia
Nizamia, Hyderabad. Mufti Mohammad Azeemuddin of this respected institute issued
a fatwa in early August saying that not only is it perfectly alright for
a Muslim male to have four wives, he can marry all of them at one go.
Relying on the fatwa, Qazi Muhammad Abdul Wahid Qureshi married off
two teenage girls from Hyderabad, Farheen Sultana and Hina Sultana, to a
45-year-old Arab from the UAE in a single sitting on August 1.
Isn’t it an offence to solemnise the marriage of individuals before they have
reached the age of 18? Even in self-proclaimed Islamic States today there is a
clearly defined legal bar on the minimum age for marriage. The ulema,
however, inhabit a world of their own. At its national meet in Hyderabad in late
2002, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) had demanded that Muslims
be exempted from the provisions of the Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929.
But for some spoilsport journalist who ruined the show, Al-Rahman Ismail
Mirza Abdul Jabbar could have enjoyed marital bliss for a few months, weeks or
days maybe, used triple talaq to instantly divorce his current wives and
start all over again with a fresh batch of teenage Muslim girls. This is nothing
but flesh trade with ‘Islamic’ sanction. Yet I am willing to bet my last rupee
that a fatwa could easily be obtained from Jamia Nizamia or any other
centre of high Islamic learning to pronounce such an obnoxious pratice "bad in
theology but good under Islamic law".
For far too long the AIMPLB, a non-elected and non-representative body
dominated by ulema who subscribe to the Hanafi school of Islamic
jurisprudence, has functioned as a Muslim male club. In the last year or so,
some Muslim women have launched a rival personal law board and are openly
challenging the AIMPLB. A few months ago, a young Muslim activist tore to shreds
the worthless ‘model nikahnama’ that had just been adopted by the AIMPLB
amidst much fanfare. In Tamil Nadu, a Muslim women’s group is setting up a
separate jamaatkhana for women.
Muslim women are now voting with their feet. We must ask ourselves why rather
than turning to Muslim men, many of these groups actively seek the support and
solidarity with secular, non-denominational women’s organisations. Shariah
courts are now in the news and the Supreme Court wants an explanation from the
AIMPLB, the Darul Uloom and others. Attempts are afoot to drum up support for
these wonderful institutions that deliver cheap and quick justice in a country
notorious for judicial delays. Mumbai’s notorious don Vardharaj Mudaliar and
Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray are also known for dispensing speedy justice.
Why not wind up all courts then and parcel out the dispensation of justice to
such speedy deliverers?
The choice is ours to make. It needs to be made now and the choice is simple:
Islam or the ulema? n
(This article was first published in The Times of India).