How does the All India Muslim Personal Law Board pursue women's issues?

Earlier this year a school in Udupi Karnataka stopped students wearing the hijab from attending school citing a reform in its uniform policy In a flash the then convener of the womenrsquos wing of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board AIMPLB Dr Asma Zehra was flooded with appeals from Muslim womenThe Hyderabad resident who thought it right to rise to the call for action took up the matter with AIMPLB office bearers and working committee members in March Dissatisfied by their decision to settle the matter peacefully and outofcourt she decided to make ldquopersonal effortsrdquo by becoming a party in the court caseOn October 11 the practising physician got a letter from AIMPLBrsquos general secretary Maulana Khalid Saifullah Rahmani telling her to halt all activities by the womenrsquos wing The letter also asked for all their social media accounts to be deletedDr Asma Zehra member of All India Muslim Personal Law Board and former convener of its womenrsquos wingldquoI had a job to performmdashto listen to the women at the grassroots level who were bearing the pain of this policy But I was not allowed to perform my taskrdquo Dr Zehra tells midday over a phone call ldquoThe Karnataka issue was in the headlines Girls were in the eye of the storm I was being questioned about AIMPLBrsquos silence when it had come out all guns blazing for the instant triple talaq ban I had requested a working committee meeting which happened in March but nothing came out of itrdquoDr Zehra then took up the matter as an individual ldquoThrough my other organisation Shariah Committee I filed a Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court on the hijab row and addressed the media as President of the Shariah Committeerdquo The Hyderabadbased body is a notforprofit organisation formed in 196667 it works towards safekeeping of the Muslim Personal Law and religious rights under the Constitution Two of its members are part of AIMPLB but the Committee itself has no connection with it Suspending the activities of the womenrsquos wing sends the message says Dr Zehra that ldquowomen are not needed anymorerdquo ldquoI was under tremendous pressure from the women of my community the leadership had failed to live up to their expectationsrdquo Dr Zehra has tendered her resignation from the working committee but intends to remain part of the general body AIMPLB is yet to respond to her resignationQasim Rasool Ilyas Second from left with the current General Secretary of AIMPLB Maulana Saifullah Rahmani in 2018The Board says this is an ldquointernal matterrdquo Executive committee member Qasim Rasool Ilyas says AIMPLB decided at the meeting in March to take a different route to resolve the hijab issue peacefully and out of court ldquoWe did not want the matter to reach courtrdquo says Ilyas ldquoWe were talking to the school management and the administration and an agreement was being reached This is why the womenrsquos wing was asked to be patient and let things work themselves out But they didnrsquot pay heed The Popular Front of India PFI and other organisations fuelled passions and the matter got blown out of proportion It reached the courts and gave political mileage to some partiesrdquoHe refutes the accusation that the Board does not care for the rights of women saying the womenrsquos wing was formed to increase their participation in all of the Boardrsquos committees aspects and decision making ldquoBut they had no rules and guidelinesrdquo says Ilyas ldquoIn the March meeting a fivemember committee was set up to form the missing guidelines as the womenrsquos wing held activities beyond the scope of AIMPLB such as tailoring and cooking classes giving out scholarships etc Our committee recommended that all activities be suspended until the guidelines were in placerdquo He stresses that the wing has not been disbanded and will be reformed Ilyas headed the committee formed in March which had three male and two female membersldquoMany large Muslim organisations that are part of AIMPLB and work in the fields of education and community service have questioned the involvement of the womenrsquos wing in these fields as it is outside their original purview of workrdquo Ilyas tells middayMembers of All India Muslim Personal Law Boardrsquos West Bengal womenrsquos wing at a presser in 2018However Dr Zehra says the tailoring and Ramzan cooking competitions were held during the pandemic when community engagement was held by a thread ldquoWe just wanted to keep the women engaged in fruitful activityrdquo says Dr Zehra ldquoand these were stopped after social movement resumed But AIMPLB claimed we were trespassing beyond the brief of workrdquoDr Zehra is a longstanding member of AIMPLB She joined in 2006 and by 2010 she was elevated to the working committee In 2015 when the womenrsquos wing was formed she was made convener She has yet to delete the wingrsquos social media accounts and said will do so graduallyldquoUntil the death of former general secretary Maulana Wali Rahmani in 2021 the womenrsquos wing had rights and a voicerdquo says Dr Zehra ldquoThe change of guard is not a problem but I can read between the lines The wing is being put on pause mode abruptly due to pressure It could have been done in a better fashion andmore graduallyrdquoIlyas calls Dr Zehrarsquos allegations unsubstantiated ldquoShe has made tall claims about rightwing members being present in AIMPLB but doesnrsquot have any proofrdquo he says ldquoShe says women are not being heard when in fact AIMPLB wants more representation in all its committees and on the Board as a whole She should not have washed the Boardrsquos dirty internal linen in publicrdquoWhere are the women in AIMPLBThe All India Muslim Personal Law Board is an independent umbrella body of Muslims in the country boasting of the largest representation from the community It primarily works towards religious and constitutional rights of Muslims through legal social and religious awareness With around 51 members in its working committee WC out of which only five are women it has less than 10 per cent representation of women in its WC in its general body of 251 members womenrsquos representation is at 11 per cent with 2930 female members The womenrsquos wing was formed in December 2015 as an outreach body for their issues and has teams in various districts plus over 150 foot soldiers