[nukkad] The Bitter Lament of a Muslim Woman

[Gireesh Dixit - PCS <>]

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Coincidences are spiritual puns. -G.K. Chesterton, essayist and 
novelist (1874-1936)
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A very good article. Long but interesting to read.

Gireesh


 
Jahanara Begum's article "Allah Amader Kandte Dao!" Translated from Bengali

The Bitter Lament of a Muslim Woman 
By Jahanara Begum 

  "Allah Amader Kandte Dao!" Allah, Please let us weep in peace! -Jahanara 
Begum   

Please, Allah, leave us alone to cry and weep in peace. From behind the
veil, 
beyond public gaze we want to cry till we cannot cry any more. This is the
only 
right you have left to us Muslim women, throughout the Islamic world, where 
your laws are meticulously followed. The world beyond is undergoing so many 
changes, so many evolutions over the ages; year after year, new discoveries
are being made both in the sciences and philosophies, in the rest of the
world, 
improving upon old ideas and beliefs. But we are tied forever to the rigid
and 
immutable shackles of your laws, Allah. No one ever came forward for our 
emancipation. Unique is our society! Men like Raja Ram Mohun Roy or Swami 
Vivekananda are not born in this society. No Sharat Chandra comes forward in
this society to write an account of the volumes of tears that flow from our 
eyes. Educated Muslim men like Badruddin Tyebji, Hamid Dalwai and others
like them have written on measures to stop the killing of cows but have
failed to utter a single word of sympathy for us, Muslim women. Abdut Jabbar
can write a big fat volume on the eunuchs-and on the castrated in different
Muslim 
societies-but he has nothing to say in our behalf. Syed Mustafa Siraj was at

least honest when he said that the Hindus can fearlessly write on the 
injustices and other inadequacies of their social system, but we, the
Muslims, 
are afraid to criticize the defects of the Islamic society. Nargis Sattar
has 
started to write a few articles on the subject of Islamic marriage laws and
we 
were so hopeful. But that hope too, once again, has been taken away from us.

More than a hundred female lawyers had demanded women's emancipation in the
streets of Lahore in Islamic Pakistan. The 'heroic' Pakistani policemen 
attacked the female lawyers with sticks and batons. A Muslim female member
of  the ADMK party of India had raised the subject of the emancipation of
India's Muslim women in the nation's parliament-but then, all the
progressive members of parliament remained silent on the issue, for no one
wanted to offend the fundamentalist mullahs and lose the Muslim votes. 

Oh Allah! the political leaders and their supporters in this land are very 
peculiar. They are just like the eunuchs who used to live among the
innumerable young and beautiful women of the harems. All the lust, passion
and sexual desires that overtook them, were of no avail for after all, they
were eunuchs and so quite helpless. Our political leaders are exactly like
those eunuchs. 
These leaders talk in high-sounding, noble words such as 'freedom', 'non-
discrimination', 'secularism' and many other beautiful words. But alas, they
do 
not have the means to apply a single such word to the day-to-day life of our

Muslim society. And so, the crying and weeping of the Muslim women go on 
unchecked; from one age to another. Their tears are symbolized by the waters

that cover three quarters of this planet. What a horrible, inhuman and 
illogical existence we have! Leaving his hundreds of concubines behind, the 
octogenarian Sheikh from Arabia comes to India to 'marry' a Muslim teenager.

The news is flashed in all papers but behold, not a single political leader 
even registers a protest. Not a single mullah or maulvi declares 'jihad' or 
holy war on such goings-on. On the other hand, the mullah presides over 
these "Muta Marriages" that last for only a short fixed time. 

What an unbearable existence for us to live and survive among co-wives! 
Innumerable children, unhealthy surroundings, poverty and lack of education 
have made a mockery of our social lives. Even goats and cows live better
than 
us. The frequent fights among the co-wives, the pulling at one another's
hair 
are so degrading! And then, God forbicl, if the miyan or husband gets into
the 
fray, then we get beaten like a beast until we cannot take it anymore. And 
after the beating, to make it even more degrading, the miyan takes his other

wife into the bedroom and shuts the door into our face. 

If there is the slightest shortcoming in the wife's attention to the
physical 
needs of the miyan or husband, then woe be to her. She goes on suffering 
forever from an acute uncertainty, and intense anxiety. The sword of 'Talaq'
or 
divorce could come down on her any moment. The slightest inattention eoulo 
provoke a divorce. All is in the hands of the Muslim husband. Just the 
pronouncement of the word 'Talaq' three times can move the earth from under
the feet of the Muslim wife. The consequence? Cheap labour or prostitution.
The little children suffer from lack of mother's love, a sense of awesome 
insecurity and an unhealthy environment. If the children manage to survive
then the society is burdened with more beggars and criminals. Admittedly
such occurrences do take place in other societies as well, but then they are
much fewer in number and, what is more important, in other societies such a
state of affairs is not allowed to persist in the name of their 'religion',
while in our society the mullahs preach such treatment to us women in the
name of 'Islam'. The motto among us is: 'Breed and profit'-take over the
land by increased birth rate. And we, the married Muslim women, have to bear
all the burden of the  entire operation. That is why no one ever finds a
married Muslim woman who is not nursing her own baby or is not pregnant.
They are with a child all the time. They die young. 

We observe the lives of Hindu women who live near or around us. What a sense
of purity, security and trust surrounds their family lives! Where is the
hope of  chastity, of purity in our lives? If the Muslim husband comes to
regret 
divorcing his wife, if it happens at all, he still can do nothing to redress

the situation. Allah, your laws of the 'shariat' prevent re-marriage with
the 
ex-husband. The mullah will get into the act, get the woman 'married' to 
someone else and she has to consummate the 'marriage' for three days and
three  nights, and then, and then only, she can re-become 'pure and virgin'.
If the new husband 'divorces' the woman obligingly, then only the previous
and now repentant husband can 're-marry' her. On the other hand, if the
bride happens to be a good woman, the new husband may not wish to divorce
her and then trouble starts between the two men. Fighting breaks out
culminating in murders in many cases. Such is our life, Allah! Who should we
go to with our sorrows and complaints? If we rebel, then we are physically
beaten and punished in accordance with the laws laid down by you. If we
complain, then we are accused of being hypocrites or 'munafiq'. In every
other religion, respect is accorded to chastity, self-control and purity.
But not so, in your religion. Oh Allah, the only privilege that we have is
to cry our hearts out. 

There are many 'educated' Muslims who are not unaware of all this. But they
do not protest for they too are out to have fun at our expense. Those
Muslims who are truly liberated, abandon us and do not want to concern
themselves with our problems. It was with us in mind that Kazi Abdul Oclud
once said that in the last 1400 years, Islam has not been able to light even
a small candle 
eradicating darkness from human civilization. Abu Syed Ayub spent his entire

active life singing Tagore songs. He married the Hindu woman Gouri Dutta and
lived a free and healthy life like any other Hindu. Mohamnled Ali Karim
Chagla did the same. Vice President Hidayetullah, political leaders like
Sikandar Bakht, Dr. Jeelany, Syed Mujtaba Ali too, did the same; in fact any
one from our society that has gone up in civilized life away from our
miseries, pains and problems moved closer to the society of the Hindus. (We
are not sure about Ghagla, but Humayun Kabir and Sadiqu Ali married Hindu
ladies. -Publisher). Only we the abandoned ones are left behind in the dark
prison controlled by the mullahs and the maulvis. We just cry here in an
endless pain. No writer or reporter writes a story on us or makes an attempt
to fathom the depth of our sorrow. The Government of India gave us the right
to vote but denied us a healthy and peaceful married life by perpetuating
the 'Muslim Personal Marriage Code'. The 'Hindu Code Bill' liberated the
Hindu women but we still remain the victims of polygamous practices. No
remedy has been provided to prevent frivolous divorces in our Islamic
society. 

Once upon a time we used to trust the Marxists on this score. The Muslim
women  of Tazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan have found their freedom in
Soviet Russia. No Sheikh from Arabia can buy them. These women do not spend
their lives among innumerable children, unending pregnancies and degrading
fights among co-wives. They have meaningful lives to lead. The mullahs do
not have control over them. But here in our land, even the Marxists are
under the thumb of the mullahs. A Marxist like Mansur Habibullah went to
Mecca, became a 'Haji' just to please the mullahs. And everyone knows that
in his personal life, Habibullah does not care about this religion. His life
is like that of a logical Hindu. And so we were saying Allah, you have not
given us the slightest  opportunity to have a little peace, a little
happiness. Your lack of concern for us is eternal. In the middle ages,
nawabs and sultans used to keep thousands of women in their harems. Most of
our days and nights then were spent in weeping. Some spent their time in
laying plots and some in profligacy and unnatural practices. We were the
fuel for the lusts of these sultans. 
Interminable fights have taken place among brothers, between father and son
and among the nawabs themselves for us women. The chariot of civilization,
slowly but surely, has crossed many paths. Radical changes have taken place
in other societies and other lands. Even the burning of the 'suttee', a
terrible Hindu practice, has been eradicated by social progress. The
marriage of very old men with very young brides that used to take place
among some Hindus, following the 'Kaulinya' system-has also been abandoned
in time. Many bad social customs and practices have disappeared in other
societies. Even in our Islamic society some good changes have taken
place-but then these changes have always been to the advantage of Muslim
males only. 

There is a villaye near Basra in Iraq. That village was well-known for 
supplying eunuchs for the nawabs' harems. Nearly 60% of the young lads who
were castrated there used to die. This butchery has ceased today. There are
many Muslims like Idi Amin who have numerous wives but the eunuchs are no
more there to watch over the women. But for us, nothing has changed. The men
of our society are completely without concern for their women. By granting a
few property rights they seem to think that a lot has been done for us
Muslim women. What good are these property rights when our marriages are
scarred with an unending chain of divorces and re-marriages? The Muslim law
has, on the other hand, given rise to a lot more persecution of Muslim
women. If a divorced Muslim woman files a suit for her property and alimony
rights, then the Muslim court moves very slowly indeed. In the meantime, the
husband can get remarried without any hindrance from our Islamic laws. The
law of the land that helps women of all other communities under similar
circumstances is of no use to us Muslim women because we are supposed to go
by the laws of Islam only and nothing else. It was Abdul Rauf who wrote in
the Bengali newspaper 'Jugaantar' describing the sorrows of Muslim women all
over the country but, alas, there was no reaction. A few letters appeared in
the press supporting the article and that was all. 

But our Muslim leaders are very sensitive when it is a question of their own

vested interest. Muzaffar Hussain wrote from north India that the Hindi 
movie 'Talaq, talaq, talaq' was renamed 'Nikaah' on the advice of the
mullahs. 
The mullahs said that to mention the name of the film to their wives, the 
Muslim husbands would have to pronounce the magic word three times which
would automatically end their marriages. These are funny men who are afraid
to pronounce the word 'Talaq' but would do nothing to eradicate the dreadful

practice of frivolous divorces. Such a great number of Muslim women lead a 
helpless and miserable life due to this abominable practice of 'Talaq'. But 
then none of the 'pious' Muslims worry about it. 

The Islamic soldiers of Pakistan's Yahya Khan gang-raped hundreds of
thousands of women in Bangladesh. More than two hundred thousand women
became pregnant. A great number of these women later became insane. Only
Mujibur Rahman tried to help a little, but the rest of the Islamic world
maintained a complete silence. Khomeini's Iran is currently killing hundreds
of women. Their fault is that they do not support his rule. So, in the name
of Islam, these women are being butchered. Vishnu Upadhyay has written about
the incidents in the newspaper 'Aaj Kal' but then no one says a word-the
Muslin world is still silent. In any other society, if a woman is raped, the
papers cry out in her support, raising a storm of protest in the community.
Islam means peace. To watch silently the persecution of women is perhaps
this peace. Such lack of concern for women has prevented all improvement in
our condition. No blessing or show of kindness from our angels has been
bestowed upon us and so, Allah, we are telling you once again about our
sadness. You are the master of this world and universe. You are the one we
are addressing our complaints to. You have denied us a happy life. If we
happen to be one of many wives of a rich Muslim then we spend our lives in
jealousy, rivalry and unending pregnancies. If on the other hand, we belong
to a poor husband then there is back-breaking hard work for all day and one
pregnancy after another as well. Wherever we go, the sword of 'Talaq' or
divorce always hangs over our heads. The uncertainty and insecurity of our
lives affect not only ourselves but our children as well. They have no
better choice and get into begging and street crimes. You have seen the
crowds of Muslim women and their numerous children roaming around the Howrah
station of Calcutta. That they are Muslims can be guessed by the presence of
the bearded mullahs that hang around these women. The only concern 
of the mullahs is to ensure that these women remain Muslims. They are not 
concerned with their health, well-being, safety and simple humanness. And
so, there is nothing for a Muslim woman to look forward to. There is a lot
of tears to shed though. A lot of weeping that has no remedy. And so we are
crying out to you, Oh Allah, you have given us one and only one privilege
and that is to weep. Please therefore let us weep in peace and leave us
alone. 


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