Muslim Women in India

ARTICLE WRITTEN BY SAHASRA GAJAVELLI

Balancing on a tightrope is not for the faint of the heart, and neither was being a Muslim woman in India until not very long ago. Her life is a mess of dodging stereotypes, communal politics, and unsolicited advice about “modernity”.  It’s carrying the weight of painful history while trying to carve a future where dignity and equality are not mere ideals. It’s history, patriarchy and politics, it’s a hell of a lot of systemic discrimination.

Long before racism and religious stereotypes could be forwarded on WhatsApp, Islamic followers existed in India. They weren’t confined to courtyards, they ruled and educated. Razia Sultana was one of the greatest rulers of the Delhi Sultanate in the 13th century. Was there a complete absence of male courtiers telling her to “stick to the kitchen”? I fear not. Was she a queen, in the literal sense and otherwise? A strong yes.

History had proven to be unkind again. When the Brits arrived with their love for tea and bureaucracy, they subtly but surely engrained patriarchy deeper into Indian minds. Suddenly women in general, regardless of their birthing, regardless of their religion, found themselves marginalized. Adding to this chaos was the partition in 1947, Muslim women became doubly disadvantaged, displaced by the violence and alienated as a religious minority. 

Their stories of survival were overshadowed by political narratives and their misery was a microcosm of the broader gendered impacts of communal strife. Communities that felt under siege post-partition started to turn women into some sort of a symbol of cultural preservation to police them even more. The Muslim women were caught in the crosshairs of a nation questioning their allegiance and a community questioning their freedom.

Did the discrimination stop after that? No, it just rebranded, and some might call it worse. Their identities are shaped by being women in a patriarchal society, and Muslims in a country where their faith was politicized.

Shah Bano Begum v. Mohd. Ahmed Khan was one of the biggest steps forward for Muslim women in the history of the Indian judiciary. The gist is, that Ahmed Khan divorces his wife and has to pay alimony or maintenance only for the “iddat” period under their personal laws. Shah Bano won the right to alimony against this law, but the backlash was so uncontrollable that it led to the passing of an Act to reduce their maintenance rights. Turns out that was one step forward and three steps back.

This only worsened the patriarchy surrounding the religious politics in India wherein Muslim women were made pawns in larger battles. They locked them within regressive personal laws that just justified further marginalization.

Present Day

Fast forward to today, and this has all but reduced. Education? Check. Employment? Double check. Hijab? Triple check. Yes, schools in Karnataka had a major problem with girls covering their hair to study and made them pick between education and faith. We sure love societal ultimatums. 

There have been (too many to ignore) reports proving that Muslim women lag behind other communities at a phenomenal level, cue the Sachar Committee Report. The unflattering blend of Islamophobia and misogyny finding its way into everything from job rejections to hate crimes doesn’t help either. 

For the layman, Instagram and Twitter are for posting selfies and arguing over pineapple on pizza. For Muslim women, it is a battleground where they have no option but to be subject to doxxing, harassment and threats.

Most netizens are aware of the “Bulli Bai” app released in 2022. Its main motive was to target prominent Muslim women and upload doctored pictures of numerous women including journalists, social workers, students and famous personalities, accompanied by derogatory content. These pictures were reportedly taken from their respective Social Media accounts before being edited and uploaded to the website for an auction without their consent. This case is also connected very closely to the Sulli Deals where several pictures of Muslim women were posted on Twitter, where each was described as a "deal of the day" in 2021, leading to public harassment.

The same year, a YouTuber named Liberal Doge "rated out of 10" Pakistani Muslim women in his livestream and some group of anonymous accounts harassed Hasiba Amin, the National Convenor of Congress IT Cell. According to analysts, the same group of people were behind the Sulli Deals app, despite the YouTuber denying all allegations of ties with the same.

Activists like Bilkis Bano (the "Dadi" of Shaheen Bagh) and Rana Ayyub have emerged as powerful symbols of resilience and defiance. Plus, organizations like Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan are working to reform personal laws and improve literacy rates, and economic empowerment.

The number one legal controversy that would benefit the Muslim community to an extent is adopting a Uniform Civil Code that respects religious diversity without compromising on gender equality. And finally, we need to normalize the narrative that Muslim women are not a monolith. The more we showcase these stories, the more we dismantle stereotypes. Their struggles cannot be untangled in any way, shape or form from the broader fight for women’s rights in India.

Muslim women in India are not waiting for the world to change, they’re changing it themselves. Through protests, education, or simply by existing in areas where they’ve historically been excluded, they’re rewriting the narrative. So, the next time you hear about their toils, remember that they don’t need saving, they need solidarity.

Equality is not a privilege.

Agency is not a gift.