As previously discussed on this blog, a woman in Uttar Pradesh was violated by her father-in-law and then ordered to marry him via an outrageous fatwa, much to the horror of sentient beings everywhere. Unfortunately, this story doesn’t have a great ending:
“Me and my husband are willing to abide by the fatwa if the Darul Uloom Muftis want us to,” Imrana said.
Mufti Habibur Rehman of Darul Uloom Deoband said in a fatwa on Sunday that the Imrana’s life with her husband Noor Ilahi has become untenable as per Islamic law after the alleged rape on June 3.
Reacting to the ruling, Imrana, who has been staying with her parents at Kukra village, on Sunday said she has full faith in the Shariyat. Noor Ilahi also said he would take steps as per the fatwa.
You do remember why she was ordered to go home, right? To purify her. Tell me, dear readers, how do you “take steps” so that your wife transitions to the role of stepmother? I’d think about it myself, but I can’t stop shaking my head and I’ve gone dizzy.
Despite the disapproval of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board and the work of women activists, it looks like the local panchayat will win. The victim’s own brothers are fine with the fatwa. While at the protest at the Pakistani Embassy last week, I heard activists discussing how Mukhtaran Mai’s mother supported her as she commenced her quest for justice. I wish Imrana’s family had reacted similarly. If she was brave enough to report this assault to the authorities in the first place, I can’t help but think that she has a flicker of defiance within her. If only someone close to her could fan that tiny flame…
It saddens me to the point of migraine that here’s where the story ends. Though the magistrate who heard this case denied the alleged rapist/father-in-law’s bail, to me, even if he’s convicted of the crime he’s been accused of, it sounds like his daughter-in-law and future wife will never win.
let us remember cases like these when people idealize the “simpler” past. ancient days still live today….
Please read the links below and get the real views of Islam on rape and how Islamic laws were formed in India. In the first link they talk about the Law in Pakistan, it holds the same for how they have done it in India also.
http://www.muhajabah.com/islamicblog/archives/veiled4allah/003015.php
http://www.crescentlife.com/articles/islamic%20psych/rape_and_incest_islamic_perspective.htm
http://www.submission.org/women/rape.html
yes, yes, i know that “true islam” is very egalitarian as regards the genders, but when are the true muslims going to wage jihad on the asses of the false muslims (who mysteriously seem to dominate many “muslim” nations!). i mean, non-muslims can get angry, but it is the false muslims who are besmirching the name of the religion….
It’s tough to keep a flicker of defiance when you grow up beaten by your father, married off like you were a burden to be gotten rid of. Now, if the rapist goes to prison for a long time without any rights to conjugal visits, that might be a break for her. Better yet, if someone can spring her from the backwater for good….. Like the Underground Railroad. To where, I can’t say….
I agree with Razib and we need to ponder how these false muslims are reigning in this century.
The problem it seems that many do not use logic or reasoning and are easily lured by faith and superstitions primarily because of their lack of education. Many opportunists use religious ambiguities to exploit these people and satisfy their interest.
You won’t hear about these kinds of nonsenses in the urban areas. Until the enlightment (education + other things) comes to these people, they will be subjected to more exploitation.
I read something in the Times of India this morning about how the women in the village are furious with the old man. Can’t find a link roght now, but it sounded good to me.
that’s “right” now, sorry. as usual, i didn’t preview.
Razib and Rezwan The problem with “false muslims” is this: every religion is a democracy in the sense than all of the followers have a vote to decide what the religion means. It does not matter what the Prophet said, what matters is what most muslims believe. If too many muslims think like the Darul Uloom Muftis, then unfortunately Razib and Rezwan will be the “false muslims”.
Razib and Rezwan and other muslims: please make your votes count! And remember, the Bin Ladens of the world are doing their best to stuff the ballot box.
It’s not an issue of true Muslims or false Muslims here. Not much to do with Islam at all. It’s the problem of a patriarchal society, insensitive to women, and most of all, complaint individuals who obey that authority. And it’s not a problem in rural India, it is a problem with Desis everywhere.
Last week in BC, Rajinder Atwal was sentenced to 16 years in jail for murdering his daughter Amandeep because she dated a white guy. His daughter was strapped in with a seatbelt in her father’s car when he slashed her with a knife 17 times until she died.
At the trial, his other daughter plead for leniency for her father, and sixty members of Prince Rupert’S Sikh community swrote in letters of support for the murderer. His other daighter, Tajinder, spoke in support of her father. His wife, Kulinder, stands by her husband.
And just to have the anti-woman Desi attitudes go a little further, the murderer’s son, Tajinder, came to the trial with his white girlfriend!
This case wasn’t a one time fluke. Several North American Desi men have killed their daughters, or daughters-in-law in Canada over the past ten years. (Jaswinder Sidhu, Naazish Khan, etc).
To some extent, I wish Atwal had been Muslim, not Sikh. It would have gotten more publicity –as part of the general Muslim Menace ™ — and issues of Desi cultural misogyny would at least have been raised and discussed.
Above should read “canadian Desi men …”
good post ikram, you are right, people tend to mix religion and patriarchy in the same ball of wax when they are 2 separate issues. Everyone who is a blind follower of their religion, while probably well intentioned, usually fails to recognize that for most of man’s history, religion was the government, and as such, much of ‘government’s’ view of religion was imprinted into holy texts and forever bastardized in some ppl’s minds till today. I think this is one of the ultimate root problems that plague the world today and why there is so much tension.
Couldn’t someone just go find her and ask her if she wants to be relocated? New life, etc. I mean, it’s a pretty big freakin’ country. Where are the domestic abuse organizations like Saheli? Are there any? Someone?
Well, hate to ask this, but how come we generally see that it’s Muslims that are more “patriarchal”, Muslim girls generally get less education, Muslim girls generally get married off early, Muslims generally have more kids………..??
And you guys probably dont get to see this much in USA or UK, but Im a FOB and I base this on what I saw in one of of India’s ‘shining’ jewels, Bangalore – not in Hickgadh, UP. You see so many girls in purdahs -not just a scarf, but a black head-to-toe covering with a mesh at the face to allow her to breathe, black socks,and black gloves. And often as not, she has 3 or 4 kids tagging along. And then you see young girls – can’t be more than 20 – holding one baby , with one or two barely-out-of-babyhood kids clamouring for her attention. To put it in one word, its sad.
And no, Im not a minorities-are-the-bane-of-India lout – I’m part of a minority myself, but it hurts me when we give so much fodder for the aforementioned louts with back-to-AD600 stuff like this.
I love that you used the organization with your name in your line 🙂 I’m still waiting to come up with one for mine (it’s great when your names start with “SA” if you have any inclination to start an organization named after you, to enshrine yourself throughout posterity (or until your funding runs out, at least :))
Anyway, I did a small google search on women’s rights and uttar pradesh that’s a good starting point if you want to find out what’s going on. This effort by a group called Vananghana seemed particularly interesting. I don’t know anything about this stuff, so take it all with a grain of salt.
It illustrates a larger point, though, that DV and other women’s rights violations are probably so widespread that unless all the women are willing to build power or leave and form their own spaces or take over their villages (which I hope they do), the overall problem is going to remain.
Ag — No, I’D agree thawt Islamic injunctions make it harder on women. Considerable contorting is required to make the revealed text progressive, and in msot places, this contorting is not attempted.
But the case described above is not religion based, it is village based. The AIMPLB (as close to an authoritiative body as conservative Muslim Indians have) is against it.
As for the poor social conditions of Indian Muslims, I’m not that suprised. They are a lower class group. Do Indian Muslim social indicators differ much from Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe indicators? I’d expect them to be about the same, with Muslims a little worse because they don’t have the benefit of quotas yet.
Razib and Rezwan and other muslims: please make your votes count! And remember, the Bin Ladens of the world are doing their best to stuff the ballot box.
1) i was making a sarcastic joke. i think it’s dumb to always say “true islam doesn’t do this,” “true christianity doesn’t do this.” i think terms like “islam” and “christianity” aren’t anyone’s to own, so we won’t get very far if we argue in terms of true religion (though some can leverage the perception of religious terms to make “islamic” or “christian” arguments in the vein of dishonesty-in-the-service-of-good. i’ve done this by arguing that st. augustine was open to old earth evolutionism, broadly speaking, though i don’t think it is really relevant it tends to make fundy christians think a bit).
2) i’m not muslim, i’m an atheist. i don’t concede to islam the idea that just because my father is a muslim i am. i will add that to my signature if people keep misidentifying me 🙂 and since i’m not single, i guess i don’t need to use my ‘exoticism’ to get the ladies, so perhaps i’ll just get a generic whitified name so people will think i’m a hindu convert to christianity or something else stupid.
3) from what i recall, rezwan is not religious either, though i do not if he identifies as muslim.
4) finally, i get irritated when muslims try to say “it’s the culture.” i don’t think you can separate the two as if religion is a set of isolated propositions separate from the practice of a people. that being said, i agree that in dialogue with believing muslims you probably have to make the argument that the two are separable to get them anywhere (just like to banish caste among hindus you have to argue that hinduism is separable from caste, though historically that is not the case). that being said, since very few people here are muslims, i don’t believe that that argument should be allowed here.
Do Indian Muslim social indicators differ much from Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe indicators? I’d expect them to be about the same, with Muslims a little worse because they don’t have the benefit of quotas yet.
this depends on the region from what i gather. throughout much of north india this is so, as the elites fled to pakistan (though i have also seen genetic assays in uttar pradesh which show an equitable representation of alleles which suggest that ancestrally local muslims reflect the high to low caste population in the area, implying that the remnants are those who are economically down on their luck and hinting at upward and downward social mobility). but i don’t think the south indian muslims can be easily generalized as so (doesn’t every muslim in kerala have a near relation working in the mid east?).
also, see this: …according the latest National Family Health Survey figures that are available for 1998-99 infant mortality amongst Muslims is 59/1000 much lower than that amongst Hindus at 77/1000; more glaringly when disaggregated at a gender-specific level and fitted into an econometric model this data revealed that differences in male-infant mortality was marginal and not statistically significant between Hindu and Muslim families (4.5% and 4.7% respectively) but was large and statistically significant for female-infant mortality (6.3% and 4.6% respectively)..
Um, I don’t think they are economically THAT backward. You’d defenitely offend a lot of Indian Muslims (and many Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe folks too) with that kind of equation. And AFAIK they DO have quotas.
Im my home state Muslims are pretty economicaly forward – but not too good in terms of women’s education, empowerment etc. Which is the most socially underdeveloped district in 100% literate Kerala? It the Muslim-majority ditrict of Malappuram.
(Im defenitely not making any correlation between literacy and respect to women – oh, no.But it’s rough indicator.)
Thing is, Muslims arent that economically backward as you make out, but in terms of factors of social developement and empowerment they are very backward compared to their economic development. Which is entirely my point, a lack of open-mindedndess, a depressing lack of will to embrace modernity when it comes to women’s rights and education.
i would argue that religious sanction to onstensibly cultural practices (eg, patriarchy) does result in a retarding effect on change. i do not see muslims as inherently more patriarchal (hindu custom is not the best in this area either), but i would make an analogy to caste: muslims have it too, but i think that because in muslims the religion to some extent militates against such differences caste is on shakier ground, especially when removed from its cultural context.
Do Indian Muslim social indicators differ much from Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe indicators? I’d expect them to be about the same, with Muslims a little worse because they don’t have the benefit of quotas yet.
there is some data here. nationally it seems hindu-muslim female literacy is not that different, 53 vs. 50, but work force participation is, 40 vs. 31. but jains have a 90% female literacy rate, and only 32% work force participation rate (they be rich!), so be cautious…. (i suggest everyone examine the data state by state, there’s nuggets in there).
I don’t hold with this ‘true Islam is perfectly gender egalitarian’ stuff, but Hindus don’t really have any reason to be smug. I’ve seen cases where panchayats in predominantly Hindu areas have handed down some pretty horrible decisions, although in the latter case it’s usually love affairs that cross caste lines that raise the community’s ire.
“Backward” Hindus, or “backward” Muslims – lack of education and economic resources is the crux in all of these sad cases. Ahhh, ain’t religion grand??
Just saw this.
Also, there’s this interesting interview with Taslima Nasreen where she says that no religion gives women freedom.
That Tasleema interview was really interesting! It almost makes up for the portion of my life consume by Lajja 😉
Saurav, I waded thru Lajja too… bleh! But I’m told her writing is getting better 🙂
I try not to knock her too much for it because she wrote it in like a week, and for very good reason. And I’m prone to publishing my first drafts too 🙂
But it really was horrific. I’ve heard that she has better writing. Now if only I could read Bangla beyond a 1st grade level 🙂
While this is a very sad case, I cannot understand the feminist intrusion in this case. Why is this being treated as an anti-women issue? The Islamic fatwa is a religious opinion that the individuals have every right to choose to obey or ignore in secular India. If Imrana chooses to remain with Noor Ilahi, I don’t see how the Deoband Muftis can decide anything for them. And why is the fatwa against Imrana any more than it is against Noor Ilahi? And any Islamic fatwa on rape/adultery would say that the perpetrators must be stoned — according to the Islamic law. In a secular country, obviously the victim is unlikely to choose that punishment for himself (even if he were able to find people willing to stone him, without the fear of getting punished for taking the law in their own hands). Let us not forget that the freedom of religion gives Imrana the right to obey (or disobey) the fatwa. And all this has nothing to do with Islam and its various shades of practitioners – modern, progressive, traditional, fundamentalist, whatever. Everybody chooses the way he wants to practise his religion, and as long as that does not affect anybody else, that is fine for the secular Indian government. And let us not go about mixing up secularism, feminism, and every other ‘ism’ there is, and taking away from the real issues involved in each of these.
Concerned —
Then why would anyone issue a fatwa, if obeying it was a simple matter of opinion? The fact is, there is a good possibility of severe reprisals (barring outside intervention) within the community for people (esp. in rural areas) not respecting fatwas.
Imrana gets raped and then has to spend the rest of her life serving her RAPIST??? this to you is the same fate as Noor Ilahi who gets to marry someone else?
But this fatwa does affect Imrana. That is why the Indian govt. needs to be involved in this mockery of justice, whether under the guise of this -ism or that.
Babloo: Then why would anyone issue a fatwa, if obeying it was a simple matter of opinion? The fact is, there is a good possibility of severe reprisals (barring outside intervention) within the community for people (esp. in rural areas) not respecting fatwas. Honestly, I don’t know much about rural life – especially in North India – so I cannot comment on the possibility of reprisals there. But a fatwa is a scholarly religious opinion given on issues as diverse as whether it is permissible to have an interest-bearing bank account to whether you can take a cough syrup that contains trace amounts of alcohol.
Babloo: Imrana gets raped and then has to spend the rest of her life serving her RAPIST??? this to you is the same fate as Noor Ilahi who gets to marry someone else? I thought the Fatwa expressly overturned the village council decision that Imrana has to marry her father-in-law. The Fatwa said Imrana and Noor Ilahi cannot live as husband – wife, which seems a tragedy for BOTH of them and their poor children. Babloo: But this fatwa does affect Imrana. That is why the Indian govt. needs to be involved in this mockery of justice, whether under the guise of this -ism or that. Of course it affects Imrana. I said as long as it does not affect anyone ELSE, Imrana should be free to choose whether to follow the fatwa or not, and that should be fine for the government.