In an unjust world, there are many everyday injustices that are often overlooked. Why? Simply because those injustices do not impact us personally! One such injustice that I recently found out pertained to a certain rule applicable to Muslim women and their right to religious pilgrimage. Or not!
What I’m sure would come as a surprise to you, especially since it is the 21st century and we are living in a progressive country, is how Muslim women had been denied their right to undertake Haj in the absence of a ‘Mahram’ or a male guardian. What’s more?!? We have not taken any substantial steps to correct this anomaly, despite 70 years of independence.
Hence, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi drew the nation’s attention to such discriminatory practices still being followed in India, I was left stunned! After all, for a woman who prides herself on both her knowledge and feminism, it was an issue that should have caught my attention. Alas, it had not!
Thus, it gave me immense pleasure when I heard how the Modi government, the Ministry of Minority Affairs in particular, had decided to take corrective measures and finally shun this practice. What this means is that Muslim women would now be able to travel for Haj even in the absence of a Male guardian. [Note: According to Narendra Modi, more than 1,300 Muslim women have already applied to perform Haj without the Mahram.]
Of course, the new directive comes in the wake of the Government of Saudi Arabia itself allowing women over the age of 45 to travel in groups without a Mahram, but due ought to be given where it is due.
After all, the Indian Government could not have obviously relaxed this rule if it was applicable in Saudi Arabia. That obviously would not make any logical sense! But now that the Saudi government has relaxed the mahram rule, the Indian government went ahead and for the first time, appointed a panel comprising bureaucrats and intellectuals to review India’s haj policy. This was a first! For never before such a review exercise has been undertaken. And for that, all political rivalries aside, we must given the Central government some credit. For its initiative in implementing the apex court’s directive towards Haj travel.
What’s appalling to note is how the high committee has been criticised for its recommendation of removing Haj subsidy?!? What I fail to understand is how can the committee draw flak for an order given by the Supreme Court?!? That’s right, the decision to gradually remove Haj subsidy came from the Supreme Court, who in turn advised the government that the money should instead be used for the social upliftment of the community.
Thus, the time has come when we rise above petty partisan politics and look towards social and economic upliftment for the marginalised. One such marginalised section comprises of Muslim women in India, who are yet to attain their Constitutional right to equality. Let’s hope all political parties persevere to pass the Triple Talaq Bill and Narendra Modi can finally deliver on his promise to Muslim women in India.
