K’taka police sleeps over 147 dowry deaths

As many as 147 cases of dowry related death have been reported from Karnataka up to July this year. But until early September not a single case was registered by the investigating agencies, a visibly shocked Girija Vyas, chairperson of the National Commission for Women, disclosed at a press conference in Bangalore last month. The Karnataka police’s negligence was particularly disturbing as incidents of dowry deaths were increasing in the state. She said that while 278 dowry death cases were reported during 2002-03, in 2004-05 the cases reported were 230. Domestic violence committed against women and children was also growing at an alarming rate, she said, and so far during this year, 1,551 cases of domestic violence had been reported. In 2002-03, as many as 2,918 cases of domestic violence were reported and in 2003-04 the number of reported cases was 2,719.

This one also comes from Muzaffarnagar, the UP town that has earned itself a bad name following the Imrana case and other similar outrageous fiats issued by maulvis and caste panchayats. Tarannum and her four-year-old son Mohammad Oman have reason to despair, as her husband Iftikhar claims to have pronounced triple talaq over the telephone from Saudi Arabia. The hapless woman swears she did not hear the dreaded words when her husband spoke to her long-distance. So what if she did not hear it, maintains the All India Muslim Personal Law Board. "So long as the husband pronounced the talaq as per the Shariah, hearing or not hearing on part of the wife was of no consequence whatsoever," says Mufti Zahoor Nadvi, an expert of fiqh – Islamic jurisprudence. Fortunately for Tarannum, there now also exists the parallel All India Muslim Women’s Personal Law Board (AIMWPLB), which is backing her case fully. And thanks to a gutsy woman police officer, Iftikhar has been booked under Section 498(A), IPC (causing mental harassment), and is currently in jail. According to Tarannum, Iftikhar became infuriated with his wife because she complained to him more than once that while he was away in Saudi Arabia his brother was making repeated advances towards her.

Talaq not valid without mediation: Kerala HC

Here’s good news for the AIMWPLB and others helping Tarannum in her fight for justice. On October 5, a division bench of the Kerala high court ruled that the mere pronouncement of ‘talaq’ three times even in the presence of the wife was not sufficient ground to grant divorce under Islamic law. A Gulf- returnee, Ummer Farooq had moved the high court saying he was not liable to pay maintenance to his wife P. Naseema, as he had served her with triple talaq on July 23, 1999. To begin with, though he claimed to have divorced his wife via post, he could not produce any evidence of the same. Besides, the division bench held that according to Islamic law divorce is not valid until mediation has been attempted by two persons, each party having the right to choose one mediator. Rejecting Farooq’s talaq claim as illegal, the court ruled that he must pay Rs.1,500 p.m. towards maintenance to Naseema as directed by the family court earlier. Incidentally, in the past few years the high courts of Mumbai, Chennai and Guwahati and even a division bench of the Supreme Court have ruled that under Islamic law divorce is not valid unless mediation has been attempted.

Sikh women’s brigade to fight social evils

The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), once again headed by the controversial Bibi Jagir Kaur – acquitted of the charge of plotting her own daughter’s murder – is about to embark on a mission organising women in North India, especially Punjab. The organisation in-the-making, the SGPC says, would reach women in every household to work out strategies at the local level to combat apostasy, drug addiction, gender discrimination and other social evils. Special campaigns would be launched to safeguard the rights of the girl child and promote education for women. To be called Mata Bhago Sewa Dal, the proposed body has been named after the legendary Sikh woman warrior, Mata Bhago, who fought for Guru Gobind Singh against the Mughals in the historic battle of Mukstar 300 years ago. Punjab today has the dubious distinction of being among the states with the worst sex ratio (number of females to every 1,000 males) in the country. While the declared intent to fight gender discrimination is welcome, the "combat apostasy" part has the ominous ring of a thought police.

NCW questions rape victim’s expulsion from school

Disturbed by news reports about the expulsion of a rape victim from a government school in Delhi, the National Commission for Women appointed a two-member team to probe the incident. "How can the school authorities, without inquiring into the facts, term an 18-year-old rape victim characterless and push her on the road?" asked NCW chairperson, Girija Vyas. Newspapers reported that the victim was abducted from outside Janaki Devi Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya in Mayur Vihar Phase I on August 23 and subsequently raped. Medical reports also confirmed sexual assault. Apparently rejecting the rape theory, the school authorities held that the girl was of loose character and had eloped with her friends. The girl was later expelled.

Woman paraded naked in Orissa village

Members of the barber community from Bhubanpati, a coastal village in Puri district of Orissa, have fled their homes and are scared of returning after four women of their community were beaten and another was paraded naked by a group of upper caste men on September 19. Subsequently, the women were locked in a room and their homes looted while their men were away. The women were set upon by a large group of men from the Khandayat community because their husbands had refused to wash the feet of the groom and guests during a marriage ceremony in March this year. The younger generation among the barbers do not see why they should be forced to continue the customary job of washing the feet of upper caste men, clearing leftovers and washing the utensils after a marriage feast. Since then, 25 members of the barber community have been socially ostracised and denied access to water sources and other common assets. With the police and local administration taking little interest in the matter, the victims have now gone knocking at the doors of the state’s governor.

Moral police gets going in Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu is currently besieged by what the English daily, The Hindu, describes as "an ugly vein of intolerance, chauvinism and sexism running through a section of (the state’s) police, media and polity". Two newspapers published pictures of a private party at a reputed five-star hotel in Chennai, showing young couples drinking and kissing. Though the pictures were taken surreptitiously, the city police immediately swung into action, ordering suspension of the hotel’s licence, arresting two of its managerial employees and threatening to take those photographed into custody. Soon thereafter, a popular actress had to hurriedly apologise in the face of politically motivated protests for having said in an interview that she did not see why pre-marital sex was such a taboo. Demands were raised for her expulsion from the state and her effigies were burnt for allegedly "denigrating Tamil women". And a student was hauled up in a local engineering college for wearing a dark coloured shirt to school, violating the Anna University’s new dress code according to which men must only wear light coloured shirts. "Morality, ethics and core values can be inculcated only through education, which must begin at home, and friendly persuasion – not by backward-looking diktats and sanctions from an obscurantist, intolerant, and sexist moral police," argued the editorial in The Hindu. We agree.

Gang rape inside a temple

A 21-year-old tribal woman was allegedly gang-raped by four men at Ranchodji temple in Jodhpur early this month. The victim reportedly had strained relations with her husband and was living with her parents. She was a regular visitor to the temple, to pray and to help the temple staff. Ramesh, one of the alleged rapists, was known to the victim and had promised her a job. On the fateful day, he took her to the lonely backyard of the temple where he and three of his accomplices allegedly raped her. With the state government taking a serious view of such abuse of a sacred place, the police were quick to nab two of the assailants and were hot on the heels of the two others.

Madrassa chief forced to drop Sania from course

If Adil Hamid Khan, chief of Chhattisgarh’s madrassa board, had had his way, the board may now have been acclaimed as the one that dared to swim against the tide. One fine morning recently, a local Hindi daily, Hari Bhoomi, quoted him as having said that from the next academic year starting in July, over 17,000 children studying in the 285 madrassas in his state would read about tennis sensation Sania Mirza as a role model for young Muslims. He added that the proposal had to be cleared by an eight-member madrassa policy affairs panel. The very next day, however, Khan went totally silent on the subject. Apparently, he received calls on his mobile phone from orthodox elements threatening him with dire consequences if he went ahead with the idea. As has been widely reported, a few religious leaders have in recent months expressed displeasure with the "un-Islamic" dress that Sania is required to wear on the tennis court.

Limited rights of a daughter