Muslim women gather in Kerala demanding equal rights to property

Kozhikode: To raise awareness for the need for gender equality in Muslim personal legislation, the Forum For Muslim Women's Gender Justice (FMWGJ) organized a state-level gathering in Kerala's Kozhikode on Sunday, March 12. The FMWGJ called for legal changes to give Muslim women equal rights to property inheritance and criticized the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act of 1937 as antiquated and discriminatory. This event was the first of its kind in the state, organized for and by Muslim women.

The program was titled ‘Uyirppu’ (which means resurrection in Malayalam) and was organised at the Kozhikode Town Hall, which was given the name ‘M Haleema Biwi Nagar’ for the event. The name was chosen to honour Haleema Biwi, the first woman to print magazines in Malayalam during a time when the press was severely repressed prior to independence. Shareefa Khanam, a gender rights activist who founded the first all-women jamaat in Tamil Nadu, inaugurated the event, which started with a reading of the Preamble of the Constitution. She expressed her support for the FMWGJ and emphasized the need for the legislation and the government to take Muslim women's right to equal inheritance into account, the News Minute reported.

Currently, personal law only allows a Muslim woman to claim an eighth of her husband's wealth and half of the inheritance her siblings receive. If the woman doesn't have any siblings, her father's assets will be divided among his brothers, with a portion going to her. This issue, which the FMWGJ has been raising for a while now, became a huge point of debate in Kerala recently, as to guarantee an inheritance to their girls, C Shukkur, an advocate and actor, and Dr Sheena Shukkur, a former PVC at MG University, reregistered their marriage under the Special Marriage Act.

The FMWGJ, which is made up of Muslim women from all over Kerala, had earlier in the year organized smaller gatherings to spread knowledge of inheritance laws in a number of other districts in the state. A founding member of the Forum and author and activist VP Suhra is one of the parties to a Special Leave Petition requesting equal inheritance rights for Muslim women. The Supreme Court is still considering the appeal. Suhra made it clear in her speech that this was an initiative by Muslim women who want to reform Islam from within, much like other faiths have done. “It is men who have translated and interpreted Islam, and therefore, the laws are patriarchal, dismissing equal rights to women. When Hindu and Christian laws have been amended to equalise them for men and women, why has that not happened yet with Muslim personal laws?” she asked.

At the meeting were also other well-known supporters of gender equity, including Dr Khatheeja Mumthaz, M. Sulfath, Nilambur Ayesha, and K. Ajitha. Daughters must feel equal to sons in every manner, according to Dr Sheena Shukkur, who was also present at the event, and the FMWGJ's efforts are the first step in ensuring that for Muslim women.

Cultural figures and eminent literary personalities like PT Kunjumuhhamed, Shihabuddin Pythumkadavu, Kalpatta Narayanan, KEN Kunjahammed and others expressed their solidarity and stated that in the current political climate, Uniform Civil Code is not the solution to Muslim women demanding equal property rights.

After the speeches, there was a discussion about creative expression and Islamic law. In another session, women who had been harmed by the current inheritance laws spoke openly about the harm it had done to them financially and socially. The meeting concluded with a demand to continue the dialogue despite potential opposition from the state and religious conservatives.

It's interesting to note that Wisdom Islamic Youth Organization organized another event for 4 p.m. at Nalanda Auditorium, which is only a short distance from the Town Hall, to discuss the authenticity of FMWGJ's claims and consider whether such changes in Muslim personal laws are necessary.