User:Omehrage/sandbox

The dynamic of women’s rights in India is on the foreground of the Muslim community and the Indian Nation State. Article 14 of the Indian Constitution states ‘Equality before law’ and grants every person equality before the law and equal protection in India. Article 15 prohibits discrimination based on religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth. Muslims women in India however are used as both an instrument and symbol for Islam in South Asia. Muslim Personal Law governs many aspects of a married Muslim Woman’s rights in India. Personal Law serves a purpose in maintaining the democratic right to freedom of religion and preserving traditions which have been a part of India for many centuries. The idea of having ‘differential citizenship’ has resulted from the differences between constitutional and personal laws in India.

Since the partition of Pakistan and Bangladesh the Muslim community in India have been greatly reduced. Maintaining Muslim traditions in India serves as a means of achieving religious equality as well preserving their respective community under the Indian Nation State. Islam although being one of the first religions to advocate for women’s rights both socially and in the political arena, has been heavily misinterpreted over the years with the death of the prophet Mohammad and with the residency of Islam in different societies. In India, “like Hindu women, Muslim women also demanded legal redress for polygamy, child marriage, purdah and denial of property rights..”.

Constitutional laws in India have taken more initiative to improve gender equality than Muslim Personal Law. The political arena for Muslims in India are overwhelmingly male dominated and the Muslim society in India is heavily patriarchal. The Ulama is given massive criticism for supporting a ‘patriarchal interpretation’ and using the Quran to further their own agendas. The Mullahs who dominate the political arena for Muslims in India have not prioritized reform to the Muslim Personal Laws. In addition Muslim women in India face larger issues in “illiteracy, social conservatism...economic dependence on men, domestic and social violence, a wide gap between formal constitutional equality and actual inequality, inferiority and subordination of Indian women.”.

Many Muslim women reformists are pointing to areas in the Quran and Sunna which address women’s rights. These reformists also demand for an interpretation of the Quran to be “female friendly” and be open-minded for an Islam which has prioritized women’s rights and equality. The AIMPBL (All-India Muslim Women’s Personal Law Board) regards that the Muslim Personal Law is ‘not a true reflection of the intention of the Quran’. The AIMPLB points out several passages in the Quran which discuss gender equality and even distinguish Islam has a religious text which as compared to other religious texts advocates for women’s rights.

One of the larger social and legal precedence with the Feminist Muslim platform reside in the framing of the issue. Push back from a largely conservative religion such as Islam is interpreted as ‘defensive’ and a flirtation of western concepts.