Women's Voice

National Convention of Muslim Women
By Ayesha Kidwai and Subhashini Ali
New Delhi:

The Convention was organised to assert that the advancement of the status of Muslim women was not the sole responsibility of the Muslim community alone, and that governments at the State and Central level had to assume responsibility for this.


On the 27th of August, more than 800 Muslim women along with other AIDWA (All India Democratic Women’s Association), members gathered at Mavalankar Hall, New Delhi. They came from Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, West Bengal, UP, MP, Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujerat, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Assam, Jharkhand, Bihar, Maharashtra and Orissa to participate in the AIDWA National Convention of Muslim Women. They came to demand recognition as equal citizens and equal access to amenities like education, health as well as employment; they came to demand freedom from fear; they came to demand an end to communal violence.

Inaugurating the convention, AIDWA President, Subhashini Ali said that the Convention was a culmination of a decade of AIDWA’s sustained efforts in mobilizing and organising Muslim women on a wide range of issues that they themselves articulated in conventions and meetings that were organized, over these years, in areas, at block and district and state levels all over the country. This effort was the result of AIDWA’s understanding that while all women were unequal, different sections of women experienced differing levels of inequality, injustice and discrimination. Women belonging to Dalits and Adivasi communities and religious minorities belonged to these sections and any movement for equality had to pay special attention to their demands and to the necessity of bringing them into the organization in large numbers and letting them emerge as leaders and activists. This Convention was organised to assert that the advancement of the status of Muslim women was not the sole responsibility of the Muslim community alone, and that governments at the State and specially the Central level had to assume responsibility for this.

Anwara Meerza, Vice-President of AIDWA, placed the Charter of Demands which included:

(1) preparation of a sub-plan, with an allocation of 15% of the Annual Budget for the targeted development of the Muslim community, especially in wards/bocks/districts with large Muslim populations, and for an equitable allocation under this sub-plan for specific schemes aimed at advancing the Muslim women of our country.

(2) recognition of, and support to Muslim minority educational institutions, with the provision of an equitable number of seats for Muslim girls, as well as scholarships for them.

(3) provision of 15% of bank loans to Muslims in priority, commercial and business sectors must be guaranteed with the assurance that Muslim women get their fair share of these loans; credit facilities for SHGs, craftswomen and women involved in petty trade and commerce; training centres for skill upgradation for both traditional and other work; provision of marketing network

(4) reservation for Dalit and OBC Muslims with adequate representation for Muslim women must be implemented; similarly a quota for Muslims within the OBC quota must be ensured.

This was followed by sessions like ‘Women and Work’ which had speakers who were themselves home-based workers and members of SHGs involved in productive work.

The session on the ‘Denial of Citizenship Rights’ was introduced by Sehba Farooqui, Secretary of the Delhi State AIDWA, who spoke about the harsh reality of Muslims being reduced to second-class citizens in parts of the country. The final session, ‘Negotiating the Public Sphere’, illustrated the experiences of Muslim women as elected representatives and in public struggles.

Summing up the roceedings, Brinda Karat, MP, said that it was AIDWA’s conviction that woman’s movement must raise the issues of different groups of women like Dalits, Muslims, tribals etc. This could not be seen as the responsibility of members of those communities alone. She appealed for solidarity with the oppressed women in Iraq and Afghanistan, who were under attack from imperialism and also with the suffering women of Kashmir who experiencing endless curfew a