This concerns us all

The husband of a Muslim neighbour of mine walks out on her as Gujarat burns. She tells me she has filed a case under the Muslim Women8217;s...

The husband of a Muslim neighbour of mine walks out on her as Gujarat burns. She tells me she has filed a case under the Muslim Women8217;s Act. I know she will never get anything except harassment in fighting her case for alimony, I also know that she will never get her rightful share in her father8217;s property because of similar toothless laws. I know that her husband will go scot-free and start his life afresh. For her, it will be a long, penniless struggle. Yet, the ongoing Gujarat holocaust has so mesmerised me that I cannot think of her impending destitution, but only of her physical security. I worry not only for her, but also for her deviant husband8217;s right to live. The basic right of Muslims to life is what occupies me now. Other battles can be fought later, I muse.

This is how this continuing anti-Muslim pogrom has reshuffled priorities within the community. If the violence does not stop, years of labour by Muslim women8217;s groups that resulted in some degree of community reform will go to waste. This perhaps is the most invisible, yet the most hazardous consequence, of the sangh parivar8217;s ongoing pogrom against Muslims. Actually, the derailment of the reform process within the Muslim community suits the political interests of the parivar. Violence of the kind we are seeing in Gujarat not only provides fertile ground for the Muslim backlash but also for the forces of conservatism to reassert themselves within the community. And this will only serve to justify the sangh parivar8217;s misplaced canards. Today the 8216;politics of hate8217; for Muslims is being converted into the 8216;politics of fear8217; of the Muslims 8212; a fear grounded on stereotypes of backward, unchanging, conservative Muslims.

On the question of personal law reform, the cleavages within the Muslim community are only too evident. Spearheading the anti-reform opinion is the Muslim Personal Law Board, which refuses to budge an inch even after the detailed documentation of the plight of Muslim women suffering under laws that discriminate against them. The reputed Muslim scholar and activist Syeda Sayedain8217;s report on Muslim women across India was sympathetically treated by the Board but no legal redress was offered. This gender-insensitive Board is supported by Muslim patriarchs across the country, the bulk of them from rich and affluent merchant families, who are ever willing to unthinkingly provide resources and support to initiatives the Board takes. But as Gujarat burns, my foes of yesterday have become my allies in the fight for a far more basic demand: to be alive. As I see their factories and businesses go up in flames, I identify with them and shed tears for them. Suddenly the reformist and anti-reformist cleavage seems to have become blurred.

As the anti-Muslim violence becomes a part of our lives I am increasingly reminded of my Palestinian student in the US. 8216;8216;We live by the day,8217;8217; she said to me in a matter-of-fact way. 8216;8216;We have internalised violence to the extent that our sense of community is structured against that,8217;8217; she adds. She argued that the issue of gender justice is something they choose not to address. That8217;s a sacrifice, she said, women make for the larger Palestinian cause. Today, as an Indian Muslim woman, I feel very much like my student. I often feel I am losing that special sensitivity within me that helped me perceive women as a class apart in the Muslim community. It is in this sense that the fight against the sinister designs of the sangh parivar has to be fought. It is not just a battle for the Muslim community but for everybody who values the plural ethos that our constitution guarantees.