The women in the airy, well-lit room could be women anywhere talking of things that women often talk about. An adult son who won’t contribute to the household expenses. A daughter who is finding it difficult to adjust to married life. A husband who threatens to get a second wife.
Seated in a circle at the office of the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA) in Mumbai, the women are looking for solutions to their problems and they are seeking them within the code of Islamic law. “Most come from poor backgrounds and do not have access to the legal system,” says Khatoon Shaikh, one of the mediators of BMMA’s Shariah Adalat that meets four days a week. “We try to solve their problems in a manner that is fair, just and in accordance with the Quran.”
A young organization with a loud voice, BMMA is one of the increasingly vocal Muslim women’s rights groups that have sprung up in recent years seeking to give space to the specific problems of women. They aim to redefine the rules of marriage, divorce and other issues in what they see as the true spirit of Islamic gender equality.
We invite our users to read the full article published on July 28th 2014.
The women in the airy, well-lit room could be women anywhere talking of things that women often talk about. An adult son who won’t contribute to the household expenses. A daughter who is finding it difficult to adjust to married life. A husband who threatens to get a second wife.
Seated in a circle at the office of the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA) in Mumbai, the women are looking for solutions to their problems and they are seeking them within the code of Islamic law. “Most come from poor backgrounds and do not have access to the legal system,” says Khatoon Shaikh, one of the mediators of BMMA’s Shariah Adalat that meets four days a week. “We try to solve their problems in a manner that is fair, just and in accordance with the Quran.”
A young organization with a loud voice, BMMA is one of the increasingly vocal Muslim women’s rights groups that have sprung up in recent years seeking to give space to the specific problems of women. They aim to redefine the rules of marriage, divorce and other issues in what they see as the true spirit of Islamic gender equality.
We invite our users to read the full article published on July 28th 2014.