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archive: Muslim women's forum ploughs a lonely furrough

Muslim women's forum ploughs a lonely furrough

P.K. Surendran
The Times of India
July 13, 1999


    Title: Muslim women's forum ploughs a lonely furrough
    Author: P.K. Surendran
    Publication: The Times of India 
    Date: July 13, 1999
    
    Two years after 'Nissah' was born, it lies emaciated.  Nissah, a
    progressive Muslim women's forum, was the first bid of divorced Muslim
    women to stand up and yell for their rights.
    
    A group of "thinking Muslim women" had gathered at Mancheri in
    Malappuram district on June 16 in 1997 and floated Nissah, which in
    Arabic means, woman.
    
    V.P. Suhara, the woman who dared the might of the mullahs, is sad that
    she has only a handful of friends now, and her pet organisation
    ploughs a lonely furrough with threats to her life popping up from
    every corner.
    
    "I used to get nasty phone calls in my old residence.  I have shifted
    the house.  Now I get mails declaring Jehad against me and my
    venture," she says.
    
    Living alone near the collectorate of Kozhikode, Ms Suhara however
    says, threat of death would not dissuade her notwithstanding her adult
    wards' pleas to give up.
    
    Nissah, formed by some six Muslim women divorcees, had drawn up a
    formidable agenda for it.
    
    The 10-point list of action included amendment to the Personal Law,
    which it identified as the chief villain for the Muslim women's
    misery.  The Law, they concluded, denies the woman equality in every
    sphere of life.
    
    The other points inter alia were prevention of child marriage, which
    though legally banned, are prevalent in the Muslim-dominated Malabar
    area, and making compulsory, registration of all marriages.
    
    The Nissah had also called for immediate ban of "mutta" (a contract
    system) of marriage where rich Muslim men weds a girl (mostly a poor
    one) for a temporary period.
    
    Coming out strongly against the mutta system, the Nissah leaders, S.
    Bibi and Suhara, said at a news conference at Kochi in September last
    that the system was widely prevalent in Mattacherry area of Ernakulam
    district.
    
    They said the system left the poor girls with a couple of kids who
    eventually landed in orphan-ages.
    
    Nissah, admitted its leaders, had under-rated the strength of the
    obscurantism.  The organisation had received much support from various
    parts of the country.
    
    Even the radical Muslim leader Sayed Sahabuddin had showed keen
    interest in Nissah's activity.
    
    But locally the organisation found terribly isolated owing to the fear
    of the priesthood and leadership of the community.
    
    "Political parties have chosen not to have noted the organisation," Ms
    Suhara said, adding, "They are worried about the vote bank.  Backing
    us will bring them no electoral gains, Hence, the apathy."
    
    But, the fight, like the show, must go on, she says philosophically.
    



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