Punishing The Victim

Also See: 
Code Of Vengeance

Muzaffarnagar District of Uttar Pradesh has the reputation of being the crimecenter of Uttar Pradesh. Not only does it top the crime graph but it has atradition of caste panchayats – of Jats, of dalits, of other Hindu castes andalso of Muslims. And these caste panchayats have been passing the most horrificand barbaric edicts with impunity. As a result, there have been lynchings,forced marriages, vicious and violent attacks – mostly on women, dalits andpoor people. Neither the district administration nor the state government hasmade the slightest effort to intervene and put an end to this endless tale ofcommunity-inflicted violence and injustice. With increased reliance being placeon communal and caste mobilization for votes and power by the major majorpolitical parties, the situation has only worsened.

The most recent example of this has been the Imrana case. Imrana is the wifeof Noor Elahi who lived with her husband, their five children and his parents inhis home in Charthawal village. In the first week of June, she was raped by herfather-in-law, Ali Mohammad, while she was asleep in her small room. Weepingbitter, she immediately went to her mother-in-law in the next room andcomplained to her. Her mother-in-law begged her to keep quiet and promised herthat she would teach her husband a lesson. Noor Elahi was away from home workingon a brick-kiln.

Three days later, Imrana’ s brother’s wife came to visit her and was toldof the incident. When she told her husband and brothers-in-law, they came toCharthawal and beat Ali Mohammad up. It was then that others in the village cameto know of the incident and a ‘panchayat’ of their caste was held. While thepanchayat found Ali Mohammad guilty of rape and said that he should be punishedby the courts, they also decided that Imrana could no longer live with herhusband since she was now like his ‘mother’.

It is important to note that no one from the community or from the religiousorganizations came forward to help Imrana or to take her to the police or thehospital. Some women activists actually performed these important tasks. Thisgave Imrana and her husband the confidence to defy the panchayat’s edict andlive together in her maternal home.

On the 25th of June, however, one maulana of the Darul Uloom, Deoband, saidin reply to a question asked by someone from Delhi that according to Shariatlaw, Imrana could not continue to stay with her husband who should leave herimmediately. Darul Uloom wields considerable influence in the area and when wordof this got around, Noor Elahi was forced to leave his wife and children. Bothhe and Imrana were told repeatedly that it was their religious duty to obey thisinterpretation.

This incident has generated a tremendous amount of controversy. Severalreligious leaders and Islamic scholars of repute like Dr. Tahir Mehmood, MaulanaDr. Karim Madni, Janab Kalbe Sadiq, some members of the AIMPLB and many, manyprominent Muslims have denounced this ‘fatwa’ as being un-Islamic, unjust andtotally unacceptable. Of course, many others have supported it.

The All-India Democractic Women’s Association (AIDWA) had intervened in thematter when it condemned the decision of the caste panchayat. Subsequently, whenthe Darul Uloom fatwa was successful in separating Imrana from her husband itwas decided to immediately hold a protest demonstration in Muzaffarnagar itself.

At very short notice and despite the fact that there is no AIDWA unit in thedistrict, a large demonstration was held on 30th June. More than 300 AIDWAactivists from Bijor, Saharanpur and Delhi along with members of Disha, MahilaSamakhya, Asthitv, Parcham etc. assembled in the city.

Early in the morning, Razia Nagqvi and I went to her village and met Imrana.She is in a terribly depressed and traumatic state. While she keeps repeatingthat she cannot go against her religion she also says that she wants, and hopesfor, justice. The people in her village, both Hindus and Muslims, are verysupportive of her and feel that she has been very unjustly treated. We assuredImrana of our support whenever she needed it and in whatever form.

Before the demonstration, Ashalata, Sehba Farooqui (AIDWA), Rehana (Asthitv),Disha (Mahila Samakhya) and I were able to meet the Chairperson of the NationalCommission for Women who was also in Muzaffarnagar to meet Imrana and herhusband. We met Imrana there again. We requested the Chairperson, Smt. GirijaVyas, to see that Imrana and her husband were given all support and protectionand she assured us that this was her intention.

Soon after noon, our procession started. Marching with their banners andnumerous placards demanding justice for Imrana and assuring her that she was notalone in her battle for justice, shouting slogans of women’s unity anddetermination, the commitment and anger of the processionists was apparent toall. As the procession went through the crowded streets, people came out oftheir shops and stopped in their tracks – they had never seen a women’sprocession before! And had certainly not seen such angry and determined women intheir lives.

The procession went right into the District Court and a big public meetingwas held there. It was very encouraging to see that no one came to oppose us andour stand. Many of the lawyers and other people were there but all of themlistened to us and then congratulated us and said that they all supported us andwere tired of what was going on in their district in the name of tradition andreligion. We were told that just a few days ago, in Charthawal itself a rapistwas given 5 slaps with a slipper as punishment by the panchayat!

The meeting was addressed by Sehba Farooqui, Rehana, Naseem, Saira, Ashalata,Aruna, Naseema and myself. In the middle of the meeting, a young, burqa-cladwoman came to the mike and said she wanted to speak. She was Azizan who alsolived in Charthawal. She seemed to be a poor woman who had just come out ofcuriosity to see the procession. She then proceeded to amaze all of us by whatshe had to say. She said "Imrana is not the only one. In our village thefathers of most of the young men who are away – whether they have gone forwork, or they are in jail or whatever – force their daughters-in-law to havesexual relations with them. If this is what is happening to Imrana, who willever dare to speak out?"

And this is the question that is troubling everyone. And the fact that in aheinous case of rape, it is the innocent victim who is being punishedmercilessly.

As the speakers at the rally said, the Imrana case has once againdemonstrated that religious courts and organizations cannot be given the rightto implement their judgments and decisions; it has once again demonstrated thatpersonal laws have to be reformed on the basis of gender justice and humanrights and then codified; it has once again demonstrated how fundamentalists ofone hue encourage and strengthen those of another – the alacrity with whichthe BJP has jumped to the ‘defence’ of Muslim women when it has alwaysthwarted all attempts to reform laws in favour of Hindu women is a tellingexample of this.

The speakers also condemned not only the administration for its silence butalso the Chief Minister, Shri Mulayam Singh Yadav who had announced that Imrana’sfate was best left to be decided by ‘wise’ religious men. They said thatsince he was committed to upholding the Constitution he was bound to protectcitizens like Imrana and her husband and give them all the support they needed.

As the rally ended, all the women participants and many of those who had beenlistening expressed their commitment to fighting injustice of the kind thatImrana, and many others like her were facing.

Also See: 
Code Of Vengeance

Subhashini Ali Sahgal is the president of All India Democratic Women'sAssociation (AIDWA). This article was originally written for People'sDemocracy, and appears here with the permission of the author.