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By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 3:26:24 pm

Trauma beneath the burqa

Sunni Muslim women seek ban on polygamy Representational image | Pic: PTI Mumbai : A landmark survey among Sunni Muslim women living in polygamous marriages has exposed a deep and dark pattern of emotional, economical and social injustice besides severe health constraints, all of which combine to arrest the progress of the community, especially among the economically weaker sections.   Conducted between July-November by Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, the alarming study of 2,508 Sunni Muslim...

Trauma beneath the burqa

Sunni Muslim women seek ban on polygamy Representational image | Pic: PTI Mumbai : A landmark survey among Sunni Muslim women living in polygamous marriages has exposed a deep and dark pattern of emotional, economical and social injustice besides severe health constraints, all of which combine to arrest the progress of the community, especially among the economically weaker sections.   Conducted between July-November by Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, the alarming study of 2,508 Sunni Muslim women in 7 states found that polygamy was more widespread than earlier believed, said BMMA co-founders Zakia Soman and Noorjehan Niaz. Present were Indian Muslims for Secular Democracy (IMSD) activists like Javed Anand, Feroze Mithiborwala and some victims of polygamy.   Of the 2,508 veiled respondents, a shocking 87 pc (2,188) said that their husbands had 2 wives, 10 pc (259) reported husbands with 3 wives, and the remaining 3 pc (61) revealed their husbands had 4 or more wives.   Signalling a historic shift on the perceived ills of polygamy, 87 pc of all the women demanded the application of IPC 494/BNSS 86 on polygamous Sunni Muslim men and 86 pc want full codification of Muslim Personal Law with legal protection, transparency and accountability, said Soman and Niaz.   The eye-opener survey found that the first and second wives in such marriages were aged between 31-50, and 59 pc had only secondary school education, with accompanying acute financial insecurity. 65 pc of the first wives earned less than Rs 5000/month, the rest had no income, and the second wives’ economic conditions were even worse.   The situation of the first wives was pitiable from the time of marriage -  84 pc of them had no income, and later, 79 pc of all the women had nil income, 61 pc first wife and 32 pc second wife never received ‘Mehr’, and those who did, the amounts were as piddly as Rs 786 (30 pc) and around Rs 5,000 (43 pc).   Against this, 32 pc of the first wives coughed out dowry (between Rs 50,000-Rs 200,000), though the incidence of dowry was much lesser among the second wives, with the polygamy plague affecting an estimated 20 pc of the Sunni Muslims community, who comprise around 88 pc of the total Islam followers in India.   Though 97 pc of the BMMA surveyed women admitted that the formal consent (‘Qubool Hai’) for marriage was taken by the Qazi, 83 pc never read their ‘Nikaah-nama’ (marriage certificate) and 38 pc had no idea of the crucial document that was held by their husbands/relatives.   They further revealed that at the time of ‘Nikaah’, a staggering 60 pc of the men were educated till Class X or less, 66 pc earned meagre (below Rs 20,000/month), and while first wives were usually saddled with lower-income families, the second wives hitched onto men who were more stable financially, said the BMMA study.   With families crumbling, 47 pc first wives returned to their parents’ homes but depended on them or charity for survival as 40 pc of all women received no maintenance and 5 pc got less than Rs 2000/month.   The second wives also didn’t fare better – 29 pc faced desertion as husbands rejoined the first wife - though a total 89 pc of all Sunni Muslim women confirmed that the scourge of ‘Triple Talaq’ has declined, indicating that legal reform can help transform lives.   “The study unequivocally concludes that polygamy causes profound emotional trauma, economic deprivation and psychological harm, kids suffer, religion is misused to justify injustice while the Islamic tenets of justice, compassion and fairness are discarded,” said the BMMA leaders.   Polygamous ‘cloak-and-dagger’ kills families Usually, secrecy shrouds second weddings - 88 pc of the first wives rued their permission was not sought, and 85 percent were never even informed by the husband. On the other hand, 68 pc of second wives were aware of the first wife, but the remaining (32 pc) were tricked into marriage.   The husbands’ patriarchal arguments for a second wife included – 31 pc claiming to ‘love’ some other woman, 30 pc justifying it as an Islamic religious right, infertility, for begetting a son or family pressures, while 17 pc cited no reasons at all for repeat matrimony – and 13 pc men resorted to plain deception to lure their second wives, claiming either divorce, desertion or death by the first wife.   Not surprisingly, an overwhelming majority of the Sunni Muslim women trapped in polygamy want the practice legally banned, and even in the purported ‘exceptions’ (infertility, terminal illness or incompatibility), most abhor re-marriage as the solution, the BMMA survey revealed.

Why is Mamata Seeing Ghost of Bangladesh?

Updated: Oct 21, 2024

Why is Mamata Seeing Ghost of Bangladesh?

Mamata is seeing a ghost of Bangladesh behind the massive outrage and waves of protest over rape and murder of the trainee doctor. And the reasons are many.

It’s been over a fortnight. Yet with each passing day the voice of protest is getting louder and stronger. From the streets of Kolkata it’s pouring into roads of hinterland. The cry for justice for a rape victim has consolidated into a wail of demands to set a lot of wrongdoings right. Here in lies the fear and trepidation. Wasn’t the issue that brought the youth of Bangladesh out on the thoroughfares a simple, innocent one of quota reform?

The chief minister of Bengal, known for understanding the pulse of people better than many, was quick to read the signages floating in the political horizon.

The most obvious reason for her to be tensed is that both the regime change in Bangladesh and the mass protest in Bengal, were student-driven to begin with. The two incidents---end of 15 year old Sheikh Hasina government and turbulence in West Bengal, over the heinous crime, falling back to back, the first on August 5th and the latter from August 9th onwards, give natural scope for comparisons. More so, because in both the cases the movement strayed beyond an affected constituency to include aggrieved people at large, cutting across socio-economic demography. If the quota reform protest started by students in Bangladesh became a mass uprising against an autocratic regime, the campaign demanding justice for the rape victim and overall safety and security of women in Mamata Banerjee’s Bengal soon snowballed into a movement of no-confidence against the government. Slogans--”Mamata must resign” also got floated in social media much in line with the call for ouster of Sheikh Hasina. In fact “Resignation of Hasina” became the single point agenda into which all other fringe demands coalesced.

Incidentally, even before people started drawing parallels, that there could be a thread of commonality in the way the upheaval in Bangladesh and Bengal played out, Mamata was quick to point out that the Opposition were trying to pull off a Bangladesh by politicizing the tragic incident: “A coordinated approach has been executed by the BJP and the CPIM with support from the Centre to defame Bengal and exploit the situation....They want to make a Bangladesh here. They are taking cues from student unrest in Bangladesh and are attempting to capture similarly. I have no longing for the chair. I came here to serve people.”

Not only Mamata, her political lieutenants are consistently equating the turmoil in Bengal with the mayhem in Bangladesh. Cabinet minister for North Bengal development Udayan Guha threatened to take stern action against those, who would be trying to exploit the situation by emulating a Bangladesh like movement. “ Even after the hospital was vandalised, the police did not open fire on anyone. The police will not allow a Bangladesh type situation. We will not allow Bengal to turn into Bangladesh, Guha thundered.

Is the government’s fear unfounded?

Apart from the similarities on ground zero, as to how and where the future course of events are heading to, there are ample reasons for Bengal to mull on-- as to what led to a Bangladesh like boiling point. To begin with, it’ll be appropriate to talk of Bangladesh and the prevailing situation, that made the students’ protest become big in magnitude. The students were out on the streets because of a high reservation in public jobs. Unemployment and stagnant job market in private sector coupled with a high rate of inflation drove the educated youth to rebel against the government.

But soon the students found enormous number of sympathisers, who were equally at the receiving end. According to Bangladesh citizens, the last two terms of the Sheikh Hasina government were a mockery of democracy. Even elections would be compromised. As Hasina grew from strength to strength, she politicized institutions. The rank and file of police owed allegiance to the ruling dispensation. Extortion, harrassment and raids by police and people in power became rampant. An atmosphere of fear and repression reigned and people got restless to overthrow the government.

Politicization of institutions has been happening in Mamata government too. Allegations are quite strong that police in Bengal functions at the beck and call of political bosses. The lapses and alleged loopholes on the part of police in handling the rape and murder of the young doctor have yet again revealed a sense of confused or misplaced loyalty.

But above everything else both Hasina and Mamata governments allegedly seem to have twined in accepting corruption as a way of life. In Bangladesh jobs of primary and secondary teachers got sold at premium, Rs 10-12 lakh in the Hasina regime. Even police had to pay up for prized postings and transfers. In Bengal busting of the teacher’s recruitment scam has revealed how unsuccessful and ineligible candidates got government jobs in schools in exchange of bribes.

Similarities are multiple and inescapable. Mamata has good reasons to be apprehensive. It’s not only she, who can see and connect the dots. People, out on the streets, clamoring for justice, can see a providential pattern somewhere in the unfolding of future events in these two places-- Bangladesh and Bengal. True, they share more than 2,217 odd km of border. They share the same umbilical cord, other than language, culture, ethos, icons. Even emotions are the same. So she cannot take any risk.

(The writer is a senior jounalist based in Kolkata. Views personal)

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