THE need for progressive reform in laws in general and in laws relating
to women in particular has been on the agenda of women’s groups and
organisations for long. In the past three decades, major amendments have
been pushed through in existing laws and new laws for women, such as
the Protection of Women Against Domestic Violence Act, 2005, have also
emerged. At the same time, in the area of family and personal laws, it
is an acknowledged fact that none of them gives women the right to
marital property.
While women’s groups underpin their understanding of reform and change in the framework of more equality, others view reform from the narrow prism of imposing a uniform approach that apparently stems from sectarian and conservative motives. The central and overriding concern of women’s organisations such as the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) was the question of equality, said Kirti Singh, senior advocate in the Supreme Court, and this included equality within their communities. In her experience, women’s groups, including AIDWA, have had to encounter resistance from multiple levels of patriarchy across communities.
The demand for a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) by certain political parties was rooted in the need for equality as seen from a certain standpoint. The approach to the UCC, said Kirti Singh, began getting defined in very difficult, unequal and political terms by parties like the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which seemed to suggest that Hindu laws were the ideal laws and that all other laws in some sense should be like Hindu laws. Both the BJP and the Congress had opportunistic views, one in support of the UCC and the other in opposition to it, with an eye on votes.
“We distanced ourselves from these groups, the BJP’s position on the UCC as well as from sections within the Muslim communities who were against any reform from within and wrongly argued that it was against the tenets of their religion. We emphasised that we wanted equality within different communities and the ending of discrimination against women within the family too,” she said.
The experience of women’s groups during the Shah Bano agitation showed that women within the Muslim community were also keen for reform of the law, which patriarchal elements within the community opposed in the name of religion. In the 1990s, several Muslim reform groups began advocating reform within Muslim Personal Law, and Kirti Singh said women’s groups, including AIDWA, pushed for a two-pronged strategy to bring about common, equal laws in areas such as matrimonial property and registration of marriages. It became apparent that the sections opposing reform within religions also articulated from time to time a narrow and biased interpretation of religion as well.
http://www.frontline.in/cover-story/for-equal-laws/article5037793.ece
While women’s groups underpin their understanding of reform and change in the framework of more equality, others view reform from the narrow prism of imposing a uniform approach that apparently stems from sectarian and conservative motives. The central and overriding concern of women’s organisations such as the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) was the question of equality, said Kirti Singh, senior advocate in the Supreme Court, and this included equality within their communities. In her experience, women’s groups, including AIDWA, have had to encounter resistance from multiple levels of patriarchy across communities.
The demand for a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) by certain political parties was rooted in the need for equality as seen from a certain standpoint. The approach to the UCC, said Kirti Singh, began getting defined in very difficult, unequal and political terms by parties like the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which seemed to suggest that Hindu laws were the ideal laws and that all other laws in some sense should be like Hindu laws. Both the BJP and the Congress had opportunistic views, one in support of the UCC and the other in opposition to it, with an eye on votes.
“We distanced ourselves from these groups, the BJP’s position on the UCC as well as from sections within the Muslim communities who were against any reform from within and wrongly argued that it was against the tenets of their religion. We emphasised that we wanted equality within different communities and the ending of discrimination against women within the family too,” she said.
The experience of women’s groups during the Shah Bano agitation showed that women within the Muslim community were also keen for reform of the law, which patriarchal elements within the community opposed in the name of religion. In the 1990s, several Muslim reform groups began advocating reform within Muslim Personal Law, and Kirti Singh said women’s groups, including AIDWA, pushed for a two-pronged strategy to bring about common, equal laws in areas such as matrimonial property and registration of marriages. It became apparent that the sections opposing reform within religions also articulated from time to time a narrow and biased interpretation of religion as well.
http://www.frontline.in/cover-story/for-equal-laws/article5037793.ece
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