In the post Shahbano period in late 80s, when
the Muslim Women’s Act was enacted amidst a
roaring controversy, the issues concerning
Muslim women came to be posed within a binary of
‘gender versus minority identity’. While women’s
groups demanded for a uniform civil code, the
Muslim and other minority religious leadership
opposed it as a violation of the Constitutional
mandate of protecting a minority identity. The
rights of Muslim and Christian women were
trapped within this controversy and there was a
stalemate. The demand for a Uniform Civil Code
was appropriated by the Hindu right–wing
fundamentalists who were gaining credibility.
The dichotomy of this situation dawned on us in
the post-Babri Masjid demolition period when we
worked on issues of relief and rehabilitation.
In this context, while addressing the human
rights issues of Muslim women, we were compelled
to work in close proximity with Muslim religious
leadership. We felt a new theoretical frame work
needed to be evolved which would pose minority
women’s rights within the frame work of identity
issues as Muslim women cannot be split within
the binary of gender versus minority identity.
In order to break the stalemate situation we
adopted two strategies – to highlight and
propagate pro-women court rulings and to work
within Muslim and Christian religious and
community congregations to bring in community
based reforms.
The success of our strategy of community based
reforms can be measured by the following two
incidents – (i) the statutory changes within the
Christian law of divorce in 2002 and (ii) the
proclamation of a model nikahnama by the All
Indian Muslim Personal Law Board in April, 2005.
After more than a decade long struggle, today,
women’s groups are no longer endorsing the
demand for a uniform civil code.
Majlis representatives had worked consistently
with Muslim scholars, religious leaders and
women members of the Personal Law Board and
academicians and had drafted a model nikahnama,
which was released by a maulavi in September
2004. We consider that the awareness within
Muslim women about a model nikahnama and the
fact that they can include pro-women conditions
in it, is victory for Majlis and to several
other organizations and individuals who had
consistently worked to change the discourse on
personal laws.
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