Discrimination in marraige and family relations- India CEDAW Review of India 2 July 2014

 When will the right time come to get justice for women?''

I think India is at a critical moment, for better or worse, in relation to women's rights, especially in the area of personal status. Having worked with women's groups in India for over 20 years, I have concerns about the direction that their activism might take especially in the area of marriage and family relations. It is true that orgnaizations like Musawah and IWRAW Asia Pacific have remained on the sidelines, not taking a position and leaving it to the Indian groups to decide what would be the best in their context in relation to marriage and the family. The recent CEDAW review of India on 2 July being a case in point. The groups at the CEDAW review (there were about 30 individuals from various parts of India ) as on other occasions, chose not to raise issues of discrimination in personal status laws. The alternative NGO chapter on equality in marriage and family relations was an apology to article 16 of CEDAW. But my question is, when the rest of us decide not to take a position out of respect for the local groups, whose voices are we so supporting? For example, in the 2 July CEDAW review process, I did not see any Muslim woman engaged in reform of family law in India or any one from Bharitya Mahila Muslim Andolan ( BMMA) . I don't also see them and their struggle for equality and justice in the family integrated into the mainstream women's movement in India. The strongest voices in the mainstream movement are from highly educated, upper /middle urban women. While it is true that oppressed groups such as tribals and Adivasis, schedule and backward castes have found place in the movement , Muslim women who are engaged in their struggle for reform of personal status law are isolated. These women who are leading the fight for equality and justice in the Muslim Family Law (MFL) are not from the upper crust and they are fighting an impressive but lonely battle. I am not convinced that the mainstream movement's stand of ignoring the discrimination within marriage and family and doing nothing, out of fear that it may lead to an attempt by the BJP towards a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) is a strategic position to take. While the mainstream women's movement tells us that raising the issue of family law reform is not opportune, they do not tell us what then is the solution for the millions of women who suffer misery as a result of unjust family laws and its prejudiced application. When the BMMA released the draft of the new ‘Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act’, something they have been working on for 7 years, in Mumbai on June 18, they were asked,

''Is this the right time to release this draft, given the new government’s emphasis on the UCC? '' Noorjehan a leading activist in BMMA said, “We oppose the UCC. But we also want to know, when will the right time come to get justice for women?''

There is much discrimination in personal status laws of all communities in India. Those who are from the upper classes even if they are Muslim women are unaffected by such discrimination, the lower classes who form the majority suffer. Noorjehan from the BMMA pointed this out when she narrated the resistance to the campaign for reform of Muslim Family Law. She said,

“Middle class Muslims kept saying: ‘Don’t tamper too much with the shariat.’ They have well-off families and education to fall back on; the unjust decisions of qazis don’t affect them much,’’ She said, What kept the BMMA going was the response of poor women. ''

With regard to the situation of Muslim women in India we should work with them actively, support them in their struggle, strengthen their activism and if they are ready, help bring their voices to the international level even. The key is to enable the mobilization of a mas movement of women to make demands for justice. While the sophisticated and scholarly activism confined to a group of highly educated and elite women may have a place, it will not be sufficient to create long term change. Shanthi Dairiam