In 2000 Dr. Syeda Hameed, after the completion of her term at the National Commission of Women, started the Muslim Women’s Forum. It was the outcome of the Report she wrote for the National Commission titled ‘Voice of the Voiceless: Status of Muslim Women in India’. She had toured the country listening to voices of Muslim women who came out in hundreds to the Public Hearings. Having submitted the report to NCW, she felt the need to continue this work.
With Dr Sughra Mehdi, Professor of Urdu at Jamia Millia Islamia, she registered Muslim Women’s Forum. Begum Saeeda Khurshed (daughter of President Dr Zakir Husain) was its first President.
MWF was the need of the hour. Colloquiums on Purdah in Islam were held at a time when miscreants were throwing acid on the face of girls who went uncovered. They propagated the Quranic injunction extolling modesty in dress for men and women without any directive to cover faces. They dealt with individual cases where Islam had been used by a patriarchal society for inflicting violence against women. A major step was taken by bringing the Ulema and Women on one stage to discuss ways whereby the Quran’s directive to Muslims that women be treated with utmost dignity becomes ingrained in minds of the Ummah, as enshrined in the Constitution of India.
MWF created space and a platform for a spectrum of stakeholders. Whenever MWF called them to meetings, leaders of all political parties across the spectrum came out in support of their view. Women’s Movement and Maulvis was not regarded as ‘us and them’. They built bridges. The acceptability across the board was due to the middle space in which they placed themselves.
It has been our effort since 2016 to return to public platforms. This has not been easy. But a beginning has been made and future has been defined. What we need is a helping hand to once again bring Muslim women, their status in Islam, their present condition within and outside the community, into public discourse. This would serve the dual purpose of removing the predisposition from minds of non-Muslims who see Muslim women as stereotypes as well as bring Muslim women themselves into the national mainstream.
