AMU controversy: Row over no library access to women undergrads

“We have nothing against girls, it is not that we are sexist or are discriminating against girls. But there is problem of space, of security. And the books are, after all, available to the girls. You just go online, click a button, and it is delivered next day,” Shah said.

On Monday, at an oath-taking ceremony on the AMU campus, Gulfiza Khan, a final year BA student and president of the newly-elected women’s student union, raised the issue in the presence of Shah — the right of 2,000 undergraduate women students to walk into the Maulana Azad library, read and get books issued.

This issue had been raised by previous student unions, with the backing of some faculty members, but was never resolved.

Saying “the absurdity of the rule” made her send a representation to the V-C as soon as she was elected, Khan told The Indian Express: “Not just me, the union vice-president and secretary also raised the issue, we all wanted to stress this would be on our agenda and we will keep pressing for it. We have learned a lot at AMU, we have great teachers here, we play sports, meet so many people and make so many friends. If we can have so much, why can’t a simple issue like security be arranged for us to access the library?”

Only undergraduate women students are denied access to the Maulana Azad library and have to make do with the women’s college library.

“The condition of the women’s college library is not great, but it is manageable. Our point is why should we be deprived of the rich resources of Maulana Azad library? At least allow us to get books issued, if you cannot create the space for us to sit. If post-graduate women and undergraduates from professional courses can sit in the library as long as they like, why should we have to rely on teachers or send a request to another library for a book there,” Khan said.

“I wonder how AMU life can be so contradictory. I am free to play any sport of my choice, but I cannot go and study in the most famous library, because I will apparently not be safe,” Khan said.

Denying he had many sexist remarks, Vice-Chancellor Shah said only undergraduate women students girls are not allowed since the Maulana Azad library is “packed” and they already have a library in the women’s college.

“My statement was given a sexist stance. It is not as if girls are barred from the library. Graduate girls go to the library for research work, they are allowed inside. It is only undergraduate girls who are not allowed since the library is packed through the 18 hours it remains open. And then they already have a library at the women’s college,” Shah said.

Shah said “we are catering to the needs of middle class Muslims, so we can’t introduce change rapidly. We have to move with the times but you have to gradually change, you can’t suddenly open the gates. I wouldn’t want to let the parents down — the Muslim middle class who send their daughters to AMU so that they stay in a sheltered environment”.

Two years ago, Shah had written 4,000 letters to parents of undergraduate women students, highlighting security concerns — the distance between the women’s college and the main campus, which has the Maulana Azad library, is about three kilometres. He asked the parents if they were ready to take responsibility of their children. Had they agreed, he said he would have allowed the women students to go to Maulana Azad library. “No parent, barring one, said ‘yes, we are responsible’. So if I’m responsible, I have to take care of their security,” Shah said.

AMU spokesperson Rahat Abrar, in a statement on Tuesday, said: “It must be put on record that there is absolutely no issue of gender in allowing or not allowing membership to Maulana Azad library. Girl students of the university which include research scholars, postgraduate and undergraduate students (including students in undergraduate professional courses) are members of Maulana Azad library and they avail its facilities in a routine manner.”

He said the university was in the process of digitising its libraries “to resolve the problem of physical space in Maulana Azad library”.
Meanwhile, the HRD ministry has sought an explanation from AMU. “There are some reports which hurt you as a woman and also agitate you that when we attained freedom, there was a belief that education and constitution rights were the same for all… and now we get reports that amount to insult to daughters,” Minister Smriti Irani said on the sidelines of a function.