Activists decry disbanding Muslim law board's women wing

Seven years after it was formed, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board has dissolved its women’s wing, with a woman member publicly complaining of the move as “unfair and unjust”. The member has alleged that the move was prompted by the differences between the executive members with women members over their Board’s position on the hijab row.

Executive member Qasim Rasool Ilyas, however, said that the wing was suspended temporarily for the Board to study its mandate, and will be functional again.

“There are reports that the women’s wing is dissolved, but that is temporarily suspended,” Rasool said. “When it was formed, the women’s wing’s area of work or its setup, objectives etc., were not decided. In a meeting of the Board’s executive committee on October 11, it was resolved that first, we must find out all these and then restart the work of the women’s wing. To this end, a committee has been formed to find out the mandate of the women’s wing.”

Dr Asma Zehra, who ran the women’s wing, was informed of the dissolution via a letter on October 11. In her open letter, Tahniyat Ather, a member of the Board from Hyderabad, said that the wing was dissolved since the men were not happy with its rising popularity and that the dissolution will be considered a ‘Black Day’ for the Board.

“We do not know what happened, and we were not informed of the decision. We were actively working, and are shocked by the decision. I won’t be able to say more at this point,” Ather said.

When asked if it was not too late to decide the mandate of the wing seven years after it was formed, Ather said that they objected to this and asked the executive committee of the Board to tell them the mandate. “We asked them for our goals and objectives, but they chose to form a committee instead; Dr Zehra is not a member of the committee but there is a woman member,” she added.

The move has led to a fair amount of chatter across social media, and Ather’s letter says that Dr Zehra’s push for the Board to take a public position on the hijab row could have been a reason. Rasool said that Ather’s letter was born out of “confusion”. DH’s attempts to reach out to Dr Zehra remained unfruitful.

The Board has over 251 general members, of which about 30 are women. Its executive committee, which is the governing body, has 51 members and about five women members. The executive committee must reserve five seats for women.

“Right from the issue of Udupi girls facing discrimination in PUC college due to hijab, Dr Asma had been of the opinion that AIMPLB should take active steps in representing the issues of Muslim Girl Students. She had repeatedly written letters to all Senior Members and Responsible Persons either to do it themselves or permit her to take a lead role in hijab matter,” Ather writes in her letter.

In the letter, Ather said that Dr Zehra felt that the Board was not doing enough and that only representation” will not solve the matter. “There have to be active efforts to explain the need for education for girls. The issue should not be exploited for you electoral gains AIMPLBs silence may increase problems for Muslim girls,” she wrote.

Prominent women’s activists from the Muslim community decried the move. Dr Shaista Amber, founder and president of the All India Muslim Women Personal Law Board, said that the disbanding was shameful. “This is very unfortunate; the talent and the freedom of our sisters have been stopped. This move goes against the grain of gender equality, and is shameful,” Amber said.

Zakia Soman of the Bharatiya Muslim Andolan, also a petitioner of the triple talaq case, said that the move exposes the true face of the Board. “The Board has lost its relevance after women took matters into their own hands; they have no connections with women’s rights and equality and they work to create impediments to women’s rights. The Board serves to maintain the status quo,” Soman said. “I don’t regard the women’s wing much either as they stand for women to be treated as second-class citizens of society.”