Deconstructing and reconstructing 'Muslim women' through women's narratives

Bibliographic Data

ID3654549
AuthorsN Kirmani (0000-0002-2341-077X, Manchester School of Architecture, corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume18
Issue1
Pages47-62
Publication date2009-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Gender Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0958-9236 • E-ISSN: 1465-3869
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/09589230802584253
OpenAlexW2121195030
LanguageEN
Citations received12
References cited15

'The plight of Muslim women' periodically surfaces in the Indian media as well as in academic forums. These discussions often focus on the tropes of parda, polygamy and personal laws with 'Muslim women' often placed in the position of symbolic bearers of the identity of 'the Muslim community'. This article explores the construction of 'Muslim women in India' outside of media and academic discourses, looking at the ways that women, who are identified as Muslim, themselves construct this category in their personal narratives. The analysis is based on discussions with women living in a majority-Muslim area of Delhi, Zakir Nagar. These discussions reveal competing constructions of 'Muslim women' in relation to parda and personal laws as well as in comparison with various groups including 'Hindu women', 'the poor', and 'the uneducated'. 'Muslim women' is thus revealed as a category that has limited and differing resonance in the ways that women themselves represent their identities. The article calls for an exploration of women's identities outside of the over-determined category 'Muslim women', taking into account multiple and contingent identifications including religion but also including class, regional affiliation, age, migration history, status, etc. Keywords: Muslim womenIndiaIslamreligious identity parda personal laws Notes 1. The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) was created in the 1970s with the primary aim of protecting Muslim personal laws from government interference. Since this time, the AIMPLB has publically commented on a number of issues related to the status of Muslims in India, and is often called upon to act as the representatives of 'the community'. It is a mostly-male body composed of a mixture of ulema, or Islamic scholars, as well as lay-people from various parts of the country. 2. In 1978, Shah Bano, a 72-year old Muslim woman, filed a case claiming maintenance from her ex-husband. She was granted a minor maintenance sum by the Madhya Pradesh High Court, which her husband disputed in the Supreme Court as a violation of Muslim personal law. The Supreme Court ruled that Shah Bano was in fact entitled to maintenance payments under the Criminal Procedure Code as well as under Muslim shariat law. The Court's decision came at a particularly sensitive moment in Indian politics as the Hindu right-wing groups had been increasing the scale of their agitations around the Ramjanambhoomi issue. Therefore, the defensiveness around religious identities at this time was particularly high, at least at the level of national discourse. For the Muslim leadership, personal law was held up as the last bastion of the integrity of 'the community's' identity, while for the Hindu Right, Muslim personal law represented the state's appeasement of minorities and Muslims' refusal to integrate in what they argued was essentially a Hindu nation. The case culminated with the passage of the controversial Muslim Women's (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Bill (1986), which established that Muslim women do not fall under the ambit of civil law in matters related to marriage (see Engineer Citation1987, Hasan Citation1998, Kishwar Citation1998). 3. Personal laws are those laws that apply to marriage, inheritance and kinship, which vary depending on one's religious affiliation. The system of separate personal laws based on religion was first established during the period of British colonialism when religious clerics, Hindu pundits and Muslim maulvis, were called upon to 'translate' religious texts for the colonial authorities in order to be codified into laws, which the colonial state could use to manage Indian society. For Muslims, personal laws were based on particular interpretations of shariat, or Islamic laws, while for Hindus these laws were derived from Brahmanical interpretations of ancient Hindu texts. In the postcolonial period, the system of personal laws has continued. While Hindu personal laws were reformed in the 1950s, Muslim personal laws have remained largely unchanged since the period of colonial rule and have become a key marker of the identity of 'the community' in the postcolonial era. 4. The ideology of 'Hindutva', which is espoused by Hindu right-wing groups in India, argues that India is an essentially Hindu nation and that Muslims are foreigners residing on Indian soil. 5. 'Talaq' refers to the practice of divorce amongst Muslims. Muslim personal law allows for Muslim men to divorce their wives by pronouncing the word 'talaq' three times, a practice that has raised controversy amongst advocates of women's rights as well as serving as further proof for members of the Hindu Right of the apparent backwardness of Muslims. The practice of triple talaq has been disputed as un-Islamic by various scholars of Islam, but it remains legal largely due to the defensiveness of Muslim conservative leaders with respect to any amendment of Muslim personal laws. 6. In fact, apart from the minority of Muslim women who practise a strict version of parda, there is often little distinction between the way Muslim and Hindu women dress, especially in the context of urban India. Often subtle differences, such as the way a woman wears her scarf or whether she wears a bindi or not, serve as markers between religious groups. 7. In terms of the law, Muslim and Hindu women are guaranteed property rights within their respective sets of personal laws. Because of recent reforms within Hindu personal laws, such as the adoption of the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act (2005), Hindu women are guaranteed a better share in terms of property rights than Muslim women. This is largely due to the difficulties in amending Muslim personal laws mentioned earlier. In practice, few women, whether Muslim or Hindu, actually realise their property rights due to dominance of local patriarchal customs and the lack of access to legal institutions faced by all women in India. 8. While separate laws help to maintain religious group boundaries at the level of the state, on an everyday level, the boundaries between religious and caste groups are often maintained through the strict practice of rituals related to purity/pollution. These rituals are often tied to dietary practices such as vegetarianism as well as restrictions on the manner in which food is prepared. For example, members of upper castes often do not eat food prepared by members of lower castes or Muslims because of the belief that this food is 'polluted'. Caste-related practices, however, are often fluid and vary depending on the individual and the context. 9. Paan, or betel leaf, is eaten in much of South Asia and is often associated more with North Indians. Although people of all religious affiliations chew paan, it is more often associated with Muslims

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