The BJP’s top leadership needs to review whether the way their Karnataka leaders have handled the hijab row is working in or against the party interests. At first glance, it seems the party has lost some of the goodwill it had earned among Muslim women by passing the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights) on Marriage Act, popularly known as the triple talaq law, two-and-a-half years ago. Even the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, the organisation of Muslim women that had collaborated with the Modi government on the drafting of the law and full-throatedly supported it—ignoring the ridicule of the liberals and leftists for not seeing the party’s real design, which was not to protect the Muslim woman from the tyranny of instant divorce but to pull down a part of the fort of the Muslim Personal Law—has expressed opposition to the Karnataka government’s decision to bar hijabwearing girls from classrooms.
With what tremendous enthusiasm had the BJP rushed the triple talaq law through Parliament! It did it, it claimed, for the empowerment of the Muslim woman!! Prime Minister Modi tweeted: “Parliament abolishes Triple Talaq… This is a victory for gender justice… It will contribute to women empowerment…India rejoices today!”
And truly, after the law was passed, the number of complaints from Muslim women about instant divorce amazingly dropped. But the BJP’s Muslim women’s empowerment juggernaut stopped there. It needed to go beyond. The abolition of triple talaq deterred the Muslim husband from divorcing his wife by uttering ‘talaq’ thrice, but it did not stop him from getting rid of her by uttering ‘talaq’ once and not revoking it over a waiting period of three menstrual cycles or three lunar months. The man was still on top. The woman could do nothing. She would be out of his home and out of his life after 90 days. He would pay her the sum of ‘meher’ (dower he agreed to pay her at the time of marriage) and maintenance for 90 days. That was all he needed to do under the law and say goodbye.
The BJP should have taken one more step after abolishing triple talaq: it should have scrapped the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986, which was passed by the Rajiv Gandhi government to override the Supreme Court judgement in the Shah Bano case, entitling the divorced Muslim wife to maintenance from her husband not only for the waiting period but for life. The BJP had alleged that Rajiv Gandhi had succumbed to the pressures of the mullahs. It stirred up Hindu passions to build up a huge support for itself on the issue. But even though it has been in power at the Centre for eight years, it has not done away with the law. It must do it, so that divorced Muslim women can be entitled to lifelong maintenance.
And if the BJP really wants to empower Muslim women, it has to do much more. For, a lifelong maintenance would not be enough for the empowerment of the Muslim woman. Even if she gets alimony, she would have to live as a dependant, as the money would never be adequate. This is the scenario that discourages even Hindu women from getting out of an oppressive marriage though they are entitled to an alimony under law. In either case—whether the husband divorces her or she divorces her husband— the woman should be independent to live with dignity and honour.
Recent trends among younger generations have shown that freedom of choice is propelled by economic independence. The wife is not willing to live in an oppressive marital relationship because she earns a livelihood for herself. Female employment is the key to female empowerment. And female employment will not happen without female education. And female education will not happen without females going to schools and colleges. So, if the BJP is truly for the empowerment of Muslim women, it should not stop hijabwearing Muslim girls entering classrooms.
Hijab is a matter of choice. Some Muslim girls wear it, others do not. Even if the BJP sees it as regressive and forced upon girls by their parents or the Wahhabists, it should allow it. The party must realise that by barring hijab-wearing girls, it would be driving them deeper into the clutches of the forces of orthodoxy. The BJP’s aim should be to help more and more Muslim women get an education. Education will lead to employment. Employment will take them to workplaces. Exposure to a dynamic multicultural environment will make them think anew about orthodox cultural practices. It could lead to more Muslim women marrying men from other faiths—something that is not happening in India—adding to the growing number of religion-neutral or bi-religious couples and contributing to making of a culturally healthy India, as it happened in the US.
The BJP must realise that the average Muslim girl lives in an environment of fear and insecurity. The rape of Muslim women has been common in riots. Communal violence and prejudices have driven large numbers of Muslims to live in ghettos. In the ghettos, patriarchy and orthodoxy rule. Men, deriving power from the responsibility to protect the women of their families, force them to wear a burqa and hijab when going out, so as to not attract attention. They are not very keen to give girls higher education, for that would mean going far from the ghetto and further risk to their security, apart from the risk of their ‘corruption’ with ‘modern, western’ education.
Muslim ghettos must melt. They must be encouraged to live in mixed neighbourhoods. This can happen only when political parties and governments do not allow communal violence and discrimination against Muslims to take place in the future. Once this happens, Muslim girls will feel more secure, and more and more of them will come to schools and colleges. Even their parents will have no grounds to deny them education. If they want their girls to go to their classes in hijab, so be it. At least the girls will be getting an education. That will open new doors for them. That will take them to different worlds.
Will the BJP ensure there is no violence and discrimination against Muslims? Will it give full attention to the education of Muslim girls and leave the future of hijab to the future? Or does it want people to believe that its responsibility for Muslim women’s empowerment ended with the triple talaq law? Are we asking too much of the Great Saviour of Muslim women?
The writer is an independent journalist and author. Views are personal
