Date: 27 April 2002

Venue: Ram Brambha Sanyal Smriti Sadan (Alipore), Kolkata

The Public Hearing was organized by Women Unit of Garden Reach Slum Development, Bastibasi Samannaya Samiti, Khidderpore and Joint Women’s Programme, Kolkata in collaboration with MWF, New Delhi.

Mr. Rabial Mallick, Assistant Director of CISRS welcomed all the participants and emphasized on different problems of Muslim women viz, Talaq, maintenance, safe custody of children, property rights, polygamy, atrocities and dowry etc. Mr. Nisith Nandan Adhikari, Minister in charge of Law & Judicial, WB inaugurated the programme.

In the business session, some cases were presented (among those who came from Garden Reach, Kidderpore) in the presence of eminent lawyers.

Date: 4 March 2002

Venue: Mahakavi Bharathiar Ninaivu Illam, 83, T.P. Koil Street, Triplicane, Chennai

The Public Hearing was organized jointly by Roshni, Penn Urimai Iyakkam and Muslim Women’s Forum. It was inaugurated by Ms. Qudsia Gandhi, IAS, Chairman & Managing Director, Tamil Nadu Corporation for development of Women Ltd., and it was presided by Hon’ble Justice J Kanakaraj, Former Judge, High Court, Madras. It is a continuation of the first public hearing on the status of Muslim women that was conducted in 1998 at Chennai by Roshni and Peen Urimai Iyakkam with the support of the National Women’s Commission. It was a benchmarked against the earlier one, which helped understand where Muslim women are placed in all the socio-economic parameters that were monitored during 1998.

The Public Hearing has emerged a very powerful and empowering forum, which allows women from the Muslim community to voice their grievances before a three-member commission. The Commission, in turn, helps in identifying resources, generating problem-solving ideas and solutions and also placing the issues in appropriate forums and larger peer networking groups to find solutions to problems that affect the Muslim women.