Sufi singer Zila Khan feels state of Muslim women has improved under BJP
India is where my roots are. It is where the music of my gharana resounds. This is the land that has showered us with immense respect. No, not just when it comes to music, but even as a Muslim woman, life in India has never disappointed me. I have never been discriminated against because I happen to be a woman form a particular religion.
Secularism resounds wherever I go. I just cannot think of suffocating myself by living in an Islamic country. One of the reasons is that countries that claim to be Islamic don't really follow what the Quran says but misinterpret everything to suit the interests of rulers and men.
Yes, I admit that I belong to the section of the society where discrimination on religious grounds is not a norm. There are Muslim women from the underprivileged sections in India who face a lot of humiliation everyday and live a demeaning existence. But that happens because they are women and the perpetrators are men from their own family who have/choose to have very little understanding of Islam. They interpret it in a way that it suits them.
They will keep their women in burqas while wear safari suits themselves. Their fathers and brothers decide if they should study or not, who they should marry. Who gives them that authority? Just because they are men? Just because they have an extra body part?
 |
| The talk of women entering dargahs is out in the open. This never happened before with such force, no? |
Men in this community behave as if they can decide whether a woman can breathe or not. Even when it comes to music, have you ever wondered why most ustads don't allow their daughters to perform even if they may be much more talented than the men folk in the family? Why is their role restricted to compering programmes for their brothers?
What gives any organisation comprising men the authority to stop the all-girls band from Kashmir from singing? I said it on national television that nobody in the world has the right to stop them offered them to share the stage with me.
Yes, life can be really tough for a Muslim woman who does not really come from an affluent background. But what gives me hope is the fact that they are beginning to stand up and raise their voices.
Look at the recent Shabana Bano triple talaq case. The so-called interpreters of the Quran may shout on top of their voices in television studios, but it does not change the fact that a man cannot give talaq by saying it thrice in one go and one place. By the way, women too have a right to give talaq. Not that I am in favour of the fact that a couple must live together if they don't want to, for any reason. Just that both should have an equal right to call it quits.
And what to talk about the fatwas that are issued every second day… have we ever wondered who the people are who issue them? Are they qualified? Are they judges of the high courts or the Supreme Court who have earned law degrees and boast of immense experience? In this day and age, where science should be the guiding light, Eid is still celebrated thrice a year in one time zone. Imagine…
And no, to improve the condition of Muslim women in India, we don't need to educate only the fairer sex but men too. And I firmly believe that India has enough resources to provide free education to all her people. C'mon, enough money is parked outside the country too. But why would politicians be interested in doing that? Doesn't it make all the sense to them to keep a large number of people from all religions uneducated?
I know this can be controversial, but I personally believe that the state of Muslim women is improving under the present BJP government. They have brought the problems being faced by Muslim women in the mainstream narrative and out of the veil. OK, you can say that it brings them some good publicity. But we have a Muslim minister for minorities. The talk of women entering dargahs is out in the open. This never happened before with such force, no?
(As told to Sukant Deepak)