Muzaffarnagar district has the reputation of being the crime
centre of Uttar Pradesh. Not only does it top the crime graph but it also has a
tradition of caste panchayats – of Jats, of Dalits, of other Hindu castes
and also of Muslims. And these caste panchayats have been passing the
most horrific and barbaric edicts with impunity. As a result, there have been
lynchings, forced marriages, vicious and violent attacks – mostly on women,
Dalits and poor people. Neither the district administration nor the state
government has made the slightest effort to intervene and put an end to this
endless tale of community-inflicted violence and injustice. With increased
reliance being placed on communal and caste mobilisation for votes and power by
the major political parties, the situation has only worsened.
The most recent example of this has been the Imrana case. Imrana
is the wife of Noor Elahi who lived with her husband, their five children and
his parents in his home in Charthawal village. In the first week of June she was
raped by her father-in-law, Ali Mohammad, while she was asleep in her small
room. Weeping bitterly, she immediately went to her mother-in-law in the next
room and complained to her. Her mother-in-law begged her to keep quiet and
promised her that she would teach her husband a lesson. Noor Elahi was away from
home working at a brick kiln. Three days later, Imrana’s brother’s wife came to
visit her and was told of the incident. When she told her husband and
brothers-in-law, they came to Charthawal and beat Ali Mohammad up. It was then
that others in the village came to know of the incident and a ‘panchayat’
of their caste was held. While the panchayat found Ali Mohammad guilty of
rape and said that he should be punished by the courts, they also decided that
Imrana could no longer live with her husband since she was now like his
‘mother’.
It is important to note that no one from the community or from
the religious organisations came forward to help Imrana or to take her to the
police or the hospital. Some women activists actually performed these important
tasks. This gave Imrana and her husband the confidence to defy the panchayat’s
edict and live together in her maternal home.
On June 25, however, one maulana (cleric) of the Darul
Uloom, Deoband, said in reply to a question asked by someone from Delhi that
according to Shariah law Imrana could not continue to stay with her husband who
should leave her immediately. Darul Uloom wields considerable influence in the
area and when word of this got around Ali Mohammad was forced to leave his wife
and children. Both he and Imrana were told repeatedly that it was their
religious duty to obey this interpretation.
This incident has generated a tremendous amount of controversy.
Several religious leaders and Islamic scholars of repute like Dr. Tahir Mehmood,
Maulana Dr. Karim Madni, Janab Kalbe Sadiq, some members of the All India Muslim
Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) and many, many prominent Muslims have denounced this
‘fatwa’ as being un-Islamic, unjust and totally unacceptable. Of course,
many others have supported it.
The All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) had
intervened in the matter when it condemned the decision of the caste
panchayat. Subsequently, when the Darul Uloom fatwa was successful in
separating Imrana from her husband it was decided to immediately hold a protest
demonstration in Muzaffarnagar itself.
At very short notice and despite the fact that there is no AIDWA
unit in the district, a large demonstration was held on June 30. More than 300
AIDWA activists from Bijor, Saharanpur and Delhi along with members of Disha,
Mahila Samakhya, Astitva, Parcham etc. assembled in the city.
Early in the morning, Razia Naqvi (Janwadi Mahila Samiti) and I
went to Imrana’s village and met her. She is in a terribly depressed and
traumatic state. While she keeps repeating that she cannot go against her
religion, she also says that she wants and hopes for justice. The people in her
village, both Hindus and Muslims, are very supportive of her and feel that she
has been very unjustly treated. We assured Imrana of our support whenever she
needed it and in whatever form.
Before the demonstration, Ashalata, Sehba Farooqui (AIDWA),
Rehana (Astitva), Disha (Mahila Samakhya) and I were able to meet the
chairperson of the National Commission for Women who was also in Muzaffarnagar
to meet Imrana and her husband. We met Imrana there again. We requested the
chairperson, Girija Vyas, to see that Imrana and her husband were given all
support and protection and she assured us that this was her intention.
Soon after noon, our procession started. Marching with their
banners and numerous placards demanding justice for Imrana and assuring her that
she was not alone in her battle for justice, shouting slogans of women’s unity
and determination, the commitment and anger of the processionists was apparent
to all. As the procession went through the crowded streets, people came out of
their shops and stopped in their tracks – they had never seen a women’s
procession before! And had certainly not seen such angry and determined women in
their lives!
The procession went right into the district court and a big
public meeting was held there. It was very encouraging to see that no one came
to oppose us and our stand. Many of the lawyers and other people were there but
all of them listened to us and then congratulated us and said that they all
supported us and were tired of what was going on in their district in the name
of tradition and religion. We were told that just a few days ago, in Charthawal
itself a rapist was given five slaps with a slipper as punishment by the
panchayat!
The meeting was addressed by Sehba Farooqui, Rehana, Naseem,
Saira, Ashalata, Aruna, Naseema and myself. In the middle of the meeting, a
young burkha-clad woman came up to the mike and said she wanted to speak.
She was Azizan, who also lived in Charthawal. She seemed to be a poor woman who
had just come out of curiosity to see the procession. She then proceeded to
amaze all of us by what she had to say. She said, "Imrana is not the only one.
In our village the fathers of most of the young men who are away – whether they
have gone for work, or they are in jail or whatever – force their
daughters-in-law to have sexual relations with them. If this is what is
happening to Imrana, who will ever dare to speak out?"
And this is the question that is troubling everyone. And the
fact that in a heinous case of rape, it is the innocent victim who is being
punished mercilessly.
As the speakers at the rally said, the Imrana case has once
again demonstrated that religious courts and organisations cannot be given the
right to implement their judgements and decisions. It has once again
demonstrated that personal laws have to be reformed on the basis of gender
justice and human rights and then codified. It has once again demonstrated how
fundamentalists of one hue encourage and strengthen those of another – the
alacrity with which the BJP has jumped to the ‘defence’ of Muslim women when it
has always thwarted all attempts to reform laws in favour of Hindu women is a
telling example of this.
The speakers also condemned not only the administration for its
silence but also the chief minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav, who had announced that
Imrana’s fate was best left to be decided by ‘wise’ religious men. They said
that since he was committed to upholding the Constitution he was bound to
protect citizens like Imrana and her husband and give them all the support they
needed.
As the rally ended, all the women participants and many of those
who had been listening expressed their commitment to fighting injustice of the
kind that Imrana and many others like her were facing.
