women's mosque

Project Proposal

Construction of Muslim Women's Mosque

(From Sharifa, Tamil Nadu, S. India)

Sent by Yoginder Sikand

Published on February 13, 2007

Introduction :
STEPS Women�s Organization is a voluntary Service organization registered under the Tamil Nadu Societies Act 1975 in 1991. It has 90% women and 10% men in its Governing Body. STEPS has not adopted any particular Village or Block but concentrates on all issues affecting women as individuals or as social beings. Our special focus is on raising voice consistently against atrocities on women. STEPS initially worked among schools and college students and rural women through Awareness generation programs such as poster exhibitions, workshops, competitions, imparting defense mechanism etc. Various issues at the Local level and State Level are taken up and maximum efforts are made to find out solution or alternatives. STEPS is generally a centre for women in distress as issues concerning women. For the past seven years, STEPS started concentrating more on the issues of Muslim Women, which is not intervened by any one in the economy. Every one is scared to touch this issue, as the issues of Muslim women are closely connected with the religion and its personal laws. Islam is the only religion which has provided lot of powers and rights to Muslim women. But in reality women were denied of the basic rights in the name of religion by the male religious leaders. In this situation, STEPS took effort in conducting survey on the socio economic status of Muslim women and found the need for concentrating and working for the empowerment of Muslim women.

Mission of STEPS:
To achieve the twin goals � social justice and gender justice by working with victimized women of all sections of society and play a catalytic role. Empowering women by promoting self � confidence, self respect and courage and help them to prevent, resist or combat gender violence. The main aim of STEPS is to Empower Muslim Women in educational, economical, social, political and psychological aspects to attain holistic personality development. Creation of awareness among Muslim Women about the causes for discrimination and violence against them. To take up individual issues and help them to find alternatives and organizing them into groups and form associations to articulate their grievances and raise their voice, loud and clear. To organize the Muslim Women for empowering them to assert their rights to education and educate the children of destitute Muslim women. Empowering the Muslim Women economically through income generation activities. Conscientising them about their political and
human rights. To provide Free Legal Aid and counseling for the women in distress. To provide facility for the Muslim Women in need and support those in their period of crisis through the short stay home. To bring the Muslim Women in to the mainstream struggle and to make them aware of their religious and political roles. To form a State Level Federation for Muslim Women.

Major accomplishments of STEPS:
STEPS have formed a district level official committee to remove and take up action against who display obscene posters in schools, colleges and public walls. With the help of Arivoli volunteers, Nehru Yuva Kendra Youth Clubs, Schools and College N.S.S. Students and Municipality Labours. Our interventions brought the priest (Premananda, Tamil Nadu) to books who raped 17 girl children. Otherwise he would have gone scotch free. Our commitments were instrumental, in the court imparting a life sentence on the priest, and a compensation of Rs.5 lakhs per victim. One and half year worked for National Elimination of Child Labor and we surveyed 12,000 working children on 73 different types of occupation.
We opened 40 schools for 2,000 students. A study on the socio-economic problems of women in Viralimalai area in Pudukkottai District had been conducted by the STEPS. The women folk of this area are involved in prostitution for generations. The study was made on the request of the District Superintendent of Police and the Study report with recommendations was submitted to the Superintendent of Police, Pudukkottai. HELPLINE is one section of Police Department which works for the Women functioning for the past 2 years in Tamil Nadu. STEPS is responsible for looking into the cases and complaints two days per week regularly on Tuesday and Friday. Also some special cases are referred to our organization by helping for counseling, investigating and recommending for future action. So far STEPS has effectively handled 74 cases through help line. Moreover STEPS has provided gender sensitization training to 2000 police officials in Tamil Nadu.

Project Proposal: Construction of Muslim Women�s Mosque & the Issues of Muslim Women

The position of Muslim Women is very worse in India. They are in double-chained slavery first as women and then as Muslim Women. Her sex and her religion curb her self � confidence and her right to live with dignity, as a women and a human being. Often the religious leaders and male scholars of Islam assure that Muslim Women have more respect in their society than a Hindu or Christian women. They argue that Islam accepts widow remarriages, right to divorce and access to property. It might have been true during the prophet�s period, because then women had free access to the mosques and also to the prophet�s abode to clarify their doubts. But today, the mobility of Muslim Women�s is curbed and they are suppressed at all levels. Indian Muslim Women suffer a lot right from her childhood. Her basic right to education is denied in most of the cases and illiteracy is high among them. Muslim men interpret the religious tenets in the convenient manner to their advantage. Women are kept behind dark purdahs and their life too is shrouded this darkness. As part of Indian culture, Muslim Women has to pay huge dowry to get married against the Islamic custom of paying �Mehar� to the bride by the bridegroom. �Mehar� is a mere shibboleth while dowry is a widespread reality, accepted and compulsory practice. Though widow remarriages and divorces are accepted in Muslim Community, in reality, men do not practice it in-favor of their women. Arranging one marriage and making it successful is a task of the society. But whether Indian Muslim men are ready to marry widows and divorcees is yet another questioning for which we have no answer. We have cases Muslim women being sold to aged Arabs and what emerges from such cases is that such practice was due to the lower status of Muslim Women in the society. The voice of Muslim Women are stifled and there miseries are shrouded in the dark rooms, their cry is deep down within themselves for they are unorganized, marginalized and invisible to the outer world. Moreover, Islam religion has its own Personal Laws known as Shariath Laws. Muslim citizen should abide by the laws envisaged in Shariath. Hence sometimes even the police personal hesitate to take up the cases of Muslim women or men and they try to direct the cases to the respective jamaat.

Need for empowering Muslim Women : Economic, social and political conditions of Muslim Women in India:
Women in India have historically been relegated to the back rows and denied their share of rights. Muslim Women have to haul a double disability load because of a biased interpretation of percepts within the Shariat Perimeters. Their misery is compounded because they are excluded from the Constitutional rights granted to all Indian (and all means all) if these rights are seen as conflicting with their personal laws. Muslims as a consequence are excluded from the operation of the law regulating the personal life of the rest of the Indian citizens. Whether or not it happens on the ground, at least the law for non Muslims is relative gender sensitive. Non-Muslim Women Muslim Women Women have a life security to live with her husband, as it is illegal to have a second wife while the first wife is alive. Under the personal law Muslim men are left free to indulge in polygamy. Muslim Women are living an insecure life. The prescribed legal procedures for getting divorce are similar for both men and women, under the
constitution of India. The procedure for Muslim men is to say �talaq� and Muslim women is to say �kula�. The procedure to Talaq is very simple and men use it for any reason, but for Muslim women, she can use it only under certain specific conditions. Non-Muslim men when divorcing his wife after a lengthy and often tortuous legal procedure, pay a substantial maintenance to his wife for life. Muslim men Successfully avoids this by paying (or not paying) a pittance during the Iddat period.
Women can enter into Temple and church to complete their prayer. Muslim women are not allowed to enter into mosque. Non Muslim women are free to approach police station for expressing their problem Muslim women should approach the respective Jamaat through the male members of her parent�s family and her voice is not heard while enquiring her problem. Mobility of the women is not restricted (to go to school, temple, friends� house, and meet relatives or for recreation). If it happens, it is only by the male members in her family who control her. The mobility of Muslim women is restricted in the name of religion. The rights of Men and Women are same before the constitution of India. Muslim men and women are controlled by the Personal Laws envisaged by Shariath. This has naturally raised a debate in the Muslim Community as well as the civil society. The question is being raised whether to maintain its identify, it is necessary for the Muslim society to persist with such social practices, which in the modern society are unacceptable; this is debated not only among the non-Muslim educated elite but among the Muslim elite also.
Muslim women are questioning the ugly side of the pernicious practice of triple Talaq and lack of provisions of maintenance after the Talaq. They have realized and repeatedly expressed the need for organizing their voices on a separate platform. Hence, a unanimous decision was taken by the Muslim women that a separate mosque for Muslim women is required. To execute the tasks of the construction of Mosque, a group of concerned Muslim women from Tamil Nadu formed State Level Muslim Women Forum. 40 Muslim Women from Tamil Nadu constitute this committee.

Evolution of Muslim Women�s Forum / Jamaat Committee:
:
During the workshop conducted by STEPS for the Muslim women, Muslim Women expressed the stories of the social oppression unleashed on them by their own people. These women lamented the fact that the men, unabashedly taking advantage of the distorted practices of the Islamic personal laws, deprived them of the dignity so assiduously conferred on them by their religion and left them alone to face the oppressive grind of daily lives. The outcome of the discussion and sharing of Muslim women found direct relationship between the abuse of personal law, and bruises of family violence and the women�s lace of awareness. This abysmal ignorance was depriving them of their personal rights and making them blind to and tolerant of abuse. One way was to make them aware of the teachings of Islam and juxtapose them with the man-made distortions which has acquired the aura of religious injunction. This State Level Muslim Women Forum / Jamaat Committee would be involved in the process of construction of Muslim Women�s Mosque through STEPS. Even though the decision of construction of Mosque is revealed by STEPS, it is the agenda of the Muslim women especially victimized Muslim women who want their voice to be heard by the world. Through the Mosque, STEPS want to create a space for the Muslim women. This mosque will fulfill all the basic requirement of typical mosque in principle and in appearance. Prayers as envisaged in Islam would be followed with the same ideology, of course with the female Emam who is eligible to do the rituals. This mosque premises will not only be a space for religious practices, it would address the issues of Muslim women, provide education, training to Muslim women and children. Destitute women can stay in the short stay home and equip themselves through the skill development trainings and live independently with the help of the support from Mosque. Hence a building with the appearance of the Mosque is not the objective of STEPS. It would be strong enough to address the issues of Muslim women, and provide solution not only in-terms of words but through its other supportive activities for the empowerment of Muslim women. This would not only strengthen the economic and social status of individual Muslim women, but will create a political power in itself, which will fulfill the needs of Muslim women.

Threats before us � the present scenario:

Initially the jamaat representatives in Parambur village of Pudukottai, Tamil Nadu, India to provide a plot on which the women mosque could be constructed. But when the story broke in the press, they were threatened by Ulemas (Islamic religious experts) from all over India, and help melted away. A woman is being victimized, not only by physical violence, but also by character assassination of the women which psychologically affect the women. The women involved in the process of construction of mosque are subject to this torture. Death threats are before STEPS from the religious leaders, as if STEPS is engaged in un-Islamic practice, and favoring other religion. Lives of Muslim women who want to engage in the process of construction of the mosque are under pressure and STEPS need to create hospice to them throughout their life time in the interest of the Muslim community. This become an additional commitment of STEPS apart from the mosque. Activities of STEPS towards Women Mosque are labeled as if STEPS is under the pressure of some political party in favor of other religion. Financial crisis faced by the STEPS team in the construction of the mosque. Even though the members of STEPS can raise up to the heights of the sky, their activities towards Women�s Mosque is restricted by the money instrument.

The Mosque will be an amalgamation of the following:

A short stay home for the women who are in crisis and support them with legal assistance.Provide education to the children of widower and separated women.
Provide skill development training to Muslim Girls / women in distress for employment opportunity example, computer education, printing works, pickle making, food processing etc. and provide economical assistance to them to start any petty enterprise Address the issues of Muslim Women.

Outcome of the Muslim Women�s Mosque :

Muslim Women will be freed from the cleric-controlled jamaats. Muslim Women will get a new social space within the Muslim society. Number of one-sided Talaqs will be reduced. This mosque will help propagate education and health among Muslim Women. Mosque will help Muslim women to get together and vent their feelings. Internal control systems would be evolved properly among the existing jamaats to control their activities (the process has started now itself).

Budget:
Description Amount in Rs. Amount in USD

1 Purchase of Land (including documentation 1%, registration charges 8% of the land value, and miscellaneous expenses) 2,968,000 64,368
2 Construction of Mosque including a prayer hall, Women Emam's Centre, Children's Home, Training Hall and an Administration Office 5,000,000 108,436
3 Food and Accommodation to 50 destitute Muslim women for one year (Rs.1500 x 50 women x 12 months) 900,000 19,519
4 Education, Food and Accommodation for 50 Muslim girl children (orphans) (Rs.2000 * 50 children x 12 months) 1,200,000 26,025
5 Salary to Emam for one year (Rs.3500 x 12 months) 42,000 911

6 Salary to Arabic Teachers for one year (Rs.2500 x 2Teachers x 12 months) 60,000 1,301
7 Salary to Overall Administrator of the Women Mosque premises (Rs.4000 x 12 months) 48,000 1,041
8 Salary to Watchmen (Rs.2000 x 2 watchmen x 12 months) 48,000 1,041
9 Purchase of Milch Animals (Rs.15000 x 10 milch animals) for income generation activity of the destitute women. 150,000 3,253

Total 10,416,000 225,895

Profile of the Organization/Contact Information:

Name: STEPS Women Development Organisation
Address : Near Union Office,

Pudukottai � 622 001
Tamil Nadu, India
Telephone : 0091 - 4322 � 220583
Email : [email protected]
[email protected]
Registration No. : 114 / 91
Date of Registration : 27th August 1991
FO (R) A No. : 076050051
Bank Details :

Savings Bank Account No.8261 / 34
India Bank,

Rajagopalapuram Branch,
Pudukottai � 622 003.

Tamil Nadu, India
Name of the Contact Person : Ms. D. Sharifa, Director

Dr. Yoginder Sikand writes in Mukto-Mona from Bangalore. Yoginder Sikand did his MPhil in sociology from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and his PhD in history from the University of London; he is the author of several books including Sacred Spaces: Exploring Traditions of Shared Faith in India (Penguin, 2003) and Muslims in India Since 1947: Islamic Perspectives on Inter-Faith Relations (Routledge Curzon, 2004). etc.