LUCKNOW: Darul Uloom Deoband has issued a travel advisory for women. The latest fatwa by the Islamic seminary rules that a single woman must not venture beyond 48 miles unless escorted by a 'mehram' — defined as a close kin with whom marriage or sex would be considered incestuous. Apart from this, a husband also qualifies as 'mehram'. The fatwa has invited derision from activist Muslim groups.
The edict was in response to a query to Darul-Ifta (Deoband's fatwa department): "Is a married woman permitted to travel to another country with her female sibling?" The response (511/308/d) posted on the Deoband website on March 2 said: "She cannot travel without a 'mehram'. It's mentioned in the Hadees that a woman should not travel for more than 48 miles except in the company of a 'mehram' relative."
Justifying the fatwa, Deoband's spokesperson Adil Siddiqui told reporters on Tuesday that their intent is to protect women. "The fatwa is relevant considering growing crime against women. Therefore, no Muslim family should have any objections," he said.
The ruling, made public on International Women's day, raised the hackles of activists who condemned the attempts to "shackle women by insecure maulanas". The issue was discussed threadbare at the meeting of Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA) and each of the 253 participants vowed to ignore it completely.
"To try and impose 1,400 years old restrictions when people travelled in kafila is absurd," said Naeesh Hasan, the founder president of BMMA. "This in an era when women pilots fly planeloads of people across thousands of miles without their fathers or husbands lurking in the cockpit."
Bazm-e-Khawateen chief Beghaum Shahnaz Sidratwell (76) wanted to know what happened to women who had no mehram. "I was the lone daughter of a widowed mother and have been moving alone ever since I can remember. The maulanas must think of better ways to make their presence felt," she said.
We are not able to reach to conclusions on many issues of importance because our thoughts are incoherent and disorganized. It is like having a road in front of us and the road is broken and has gaps after every few feet. But we assume that the road is smooth and continuous.
Resultantly, we keep falling in those gaps. We mix up a lot many issues in a flood of confusion.
We will say that Islam is a complete way of life and then divide the affairs of life into ‘secular’ and ‘religious’. Isn’t Islam a religion and it is complete? Then why this division? We will, however, not prepare a list of ‘secular’ and ‘religious’ matters despite being earnestly requested to do so – repeatedly.
I come across people once in a while who say that that they have ‘made’ hijrah from the West. (We made a hijrah in the Indian Subcontinent and should only read the headlines of one newspaper – everyday.) I am wonderstruck at this huge gap. They will believe that Islam is the best way of life and it is for the entire humanity. But practically they will exclude a significant part of the world from the ‘entire’ humanity and the ‘whole’ world. And they will not see the self-contradiction.
When we emphasize on the need for a huge component of rote learning and memorization in our curriculum then we give an impression that “We have actually tried hard with critical and scientific thinking. But it proved to be disastrous, you know. It did not produce the desired results (???). The students are not hard-working anymore, you see. They want it easy. You know how the new generation is. Our times were different. And you know they don’t send bright students to madrasaahs.”
An eminent speaker I met the other day. He started lamenting that the people do not send ‘bright’ children to madrasaahs. (I haven’t seen any students who aren’t bright – in their own way. Just as I haven’t seen any ‘ordinary’ and ‘common’ human beings in my life.) On the other hand, he was complaining that the syllabi of these institutions are extremely old. He did not realize why the people should send their ‘bright’ children to madrasaahs if the syllabi are so outdated.
I could not understand why the ‘bright’ students should be sent to these institutions if the curriculum is not up-to-date. How could or will an up-to-date teacher teach an outdated curriculum is beside the point. As if it was not enough, the respectable speaker started complaining about the graduates of madrasaahs. This wasn’t enough either. He was of the view that the madrasaahs should completely teach the Tafseer of the whole Qur’an and a student must necessarily go over the entire Qur’an – at least in translation.
I could not get a definite answer to my question about what was the real problem; the curriculum, the methodology, the students not being ‘bright’ or the Qur’an not being taught in full. We face a difficulty in staying focused on one subject while communicating with the ‘traditionally’ educated. With much difficulty I drew the attention of the gentleman to the core issue as he frequently stepped into sideways.
The ‘modern’ educated are very much appreciable in this regard. As a people, however, we need to develop a habit of staying with the problems longer. It will require that we stop repeating those sentences which we have heard a thousand times. The situations demand that we start ‘chewing the cud’.
We will talk about the need for more engagement with the fellow countrymen of other Faiths but will establish and perpetuate those educational institutions which are the antithesis of cohesion and engagement. Without noticing the self-contradiction. We will talk about Haqq-O-Baatil and will advise, too, for adhering to the former. We will, however, not call a spade a spade. We will still beat about the bush and stay away from the crux of it.
We read a lot of articles from many writers from all over the world. This is very important. But there is one apprehension. We might think that the journalists from across the globe will provide a solution to the problems. If we do so we may be mistaken. How could those who do not have the whole picture (who aren’t sure where the man has come from, what is he expected to do on earth and where is he going to) provide a solution to the vexed (???) problems of the world? If they still do that, it will be rare and, of course, admirable.
We are extremely concerned about educating every Muslim child but we do not know why we should do that. So we don’t know the reasons of this concern for Muslims which has become a kind of fashion now. It gives an instant impression that “I am in a much better situation, thank God.” No, we are not “in a much better situation”.
We ALL are poor (muflis). But there is something that does not allow us to concede that we are poor. We go about the idea of reform in circles and circles. I wonder if so many among us are trying to make things better – and for so long – then why don’t we see the results? The incoherence and disorganization in our thoughts is the diehard enemy of results.
Please don’t ever get impressed by quotations from Qur’an or Hadeeth or from history etc. It is most likely that the quotations will be out of context – ignoring the broader picture. It is most likely that we belong to a situation like Makkan and the quotation is of a Madeenan context, for example. There is also a slight chance that we may not be belonging to either of the two periods.
There is a possibility that the quotation is from a person who is sure about everything and has never been slightly confused about even a few things. May be the quotation is a result of deep conditioning. May be the sermon is from someone who has never tried to put all the ideas (or pieces of a jigsaw puzzle) in order and organize them. So we shouldn’t take chances.
The incoherence and disorganization in our thoughts (which naturally leads to incoherent and disorganized actions – and there is no force that can stop it from happening) is eating into our vitals. What to do now? We need to be watchful in our conversations. We have to very carefully and critically listen to every speech or read every piece of writing (including this one). We have to be many times more cautious than we have ever been.
We shouldn’t do so only when we are in the gathering of ‘others’. We need to do this even more when we are in ‘our own’ gatherings. If we do not do so, the discourse will not change which is precisely what we need to change. We will not be moving to the second stage which is long overdue. This is the price that we as a people have to pay for a CHANGE which we all are
yearning to see
More than 100 innocent persons were arrested after burning of S-6 in Godhra on 27th February 2002 which in turn followed demolition of Babri Masjid on 6th December 1992. The man mainly responsible for the former was Mr. L.K.Advani who, to fulfill his ambition for power raised the slogan ‘mandir wahin banayenge’ and played with the religious sentiments of common Hindus and our secular state looked the other way. The man responsible for the later was Narendra Modi, who exploited burning of S-6 in Godhra to retain his power which otherwise he was sure to loose. And both these worthies of BJP brought utter shame to our secular tradition and secular philosophy.
As a result of this conspiracy by these two men thousands died, lakhs uprooted from their hearths and homes and many more lost everything they had and yet both are not only unpunished but are enjoying power (Advani, though could not become Prime Minister which was his ambition but became Home Minister and deputy Prime Minister under Atal Bihari Vajpayeeji and is now a prominent opposition leader which also is a sort of power).
Mr. Advani very promptly issues a statement that he has been vindicated the moment lower court pronounces some people guilty arrested by his or his Party’s Government even before higher court’s judgments often release them or declare them not guilty. The moment Mr. Jeelani was held guilty by the lower court in Parliament attack case, he did not hesitate to issue this statement even though he was Home Minister at the Centre. No one holding such responsible position should rush to issue such statement when the lower court has pronounced the judgment. The highest court i.e. the Supreme Court found Prof. Jeelani ‘not guilty’ and released him.
Again after the ‘Godhra Conspiracy Case’ judgment the Advani-speak was the same. He was delighted that 31 people were pronounced ‘guilty’ by the lower court although 63 were released and especially Husain Umerjee who was arrested as the ‘main conspirator’ was found not guilty by the Court. The whole conspiracy theory falls to the ground if the chief conspirator himself is found innocent. Who then plotted the conspiracy? But that was none of Advani’s concern. At least 31 have been found guilty. And it is out of question that he (Advaniji) will wait for higher courts to critically examine the judgment of the lower court.
Mr.Advani does this not because he is hasty by nature. He does it on purpose. He knows his guilt in raising emotionally surcharged issue of Ramjanambhoomi temple and getting it demolished in his august presence on 6th December, 1992 and wants to hide his guilt by pronouncing the victims themselves as guilty. Unfortunately this is the whole tragedy. Besides thousands who died due to the controversy Mr. Advani raised and lakhs who were uprooted and became refugees in their own country, hundreds suffered due to imprisonment for years.
In the Godhra case alone more than 100 persons were arrested under the charge of conspiracy some of whom died and 63, who spent 9 years in jail, were released by the court. Who will compensate them for precious loss of these years in prison? The Police in Modi Government arbitrarily picked up people and put them under POTA. I cannot forget the cries of a woman in public hearing in Hyderabad
What is more matter of concern is that while innocent people who have suffered so much already including those whose near and dear ones were burnt alive in Sabarmati Express those who are really guilty are enjoying power. Is this our secular democracy that those who incite religious sentiments enjoy power and those who sweat and toil for their daily existence loose their lives or suffer imprisonment for years? Can it fit into any human rights norms, let alone our secular political philosophy?
And what is worse Mr. L.K.Advani is not even being tried for demolition of Babri Masjid but for making provocative speech near Babri Masjid. That case was also withdrawn and now CBI has again applied for reviving the case. The CBI was as much pliant to the NDA Government as the BJP never tires of accusing the Congress of. It was under Home Ministership of Mr. Advani that such cases against him were withdrawn by the CBI.
In the first place Mr. Advani should not have been made Home Minister, much less becoming Deputy Prime Minister when he was being tried in the court of law by CBI which works under the home ministry. But anything can happen in democraticIndia
Mr. Narendra Modi, less said the better. It is important to ask in his case what is good governance? To kill 2000 innocent people and rape scores of women, including pregnant women and to win power by inciting religious sentiment and to polarize people on religious grounds? For TATAs and Ambanis and other big industrialists it may amount to good governance but for common people it amounts to hell.
The Gujarat carnage, whatever Mr. Modi now does, cannot be forgotten and will go down in history as occurrence of greatest shame for secular India Gujarat , keeps on praising Modi on every possible occasion but it only adds to the gravity and criminality of the matter.
Even SIT (Special Investigation Team) appointed by the Supreme Court, though could not give clean chit to Mr. Modi but wriggled out by saying there is not enough evidence to try him. The SIT report published in Tehelka is damaging enough. If the SIT had proceeded further on that basis it could have surely found evidence to try Mr.Modi. Without Modi’s complicity riots could not have lasted even for 24 hours, let alone three months.
The cases of Bihar under Lalu Prasad and West Bengal under the Left Government clearly show, if any proof is needed, that no communal riot can last more than 24 hours without the state complicity. Can then Narendra Modi be exonerated of his complicity in riots? In no way. And SIT report and other investigative reports clearly indict him beyond any doubt. If his dark spot on the fair name of secularism is to be washed away the really guilty must be held accountable in any case.
Technicalities should not become an excuse to exonerate these people who have ruined the lives of thousands of people for ever. If these people can enjoy power by accusing innocent people of ‘conspiracy without any solid ground, can really guilty be not tried on very sound ground. Let us hope the Supreme Court will issue further directives to SIT or any other agencies to collect proper evidence against the guilty men of Gujarat . Most of the police high officers who did what the Government of Gujarat wanted them to do should also not be allowed to escape and must be held responsible.
These high officials cannot get away by saying they carried out orders of the Government. Their first duty is towards the Constitution of India and no unconstitutional orders can be followed. My experience in last forty five years of my work for communal harmony shows that communal violence cannot stop in this country unless the guilty people are given exemplary punishment. It is no use small fish being shown the stick and big fish enjoys all the benefits of inciting communal violence.
Let us all hope that one day it will happen and certainly so if the civil society shows proper awareness. It is fragmented civil society which allows such benefits of provoking communal sentiments by few politicians. Gujarat then certainly cannot repeat.
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