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Personal Laws in India: The Activisms of Muslim Women's Organizations
Abstract
“Indian Secularism” is understood as the State’s acceptance of different religions
and their practices. Consequently, the Constitution allows for Personal Laws that
empower religious authorities to enforce religious laws on personal matters. However,
legislators also approved a directive to establish a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) applicable
to all citizens. Of the three personal law systems, Hindu, Muslim and Christian Personal
Laws, the Muslim Personal Law (MPL) has received the most scrutiny. Historically,
the “Muslim woman” has been seen as a passive victim. My paper explores how Muslim
women, as organizers and activists are active participants in the UCC debate today.
I contrast how two Muslim Women’s Organizations, the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan
and Awaaz-e-Niswaan approach this issue. The organizations are structured such that
agency is located in the Muslim woman. Their work through “women’s courts” fragment
religious and state authorities. They differ in their vision for the UCC. The BMMA
demands a gender-just, reinterpreted, codified MPL system. In contrast, AEN argues
against having a MPL. Tracing this difference to a fundamental difference in their
interpretation of secularism, I argue that by embodying these varying ideals of secularism,
the activisms of AEN and the BMMA are able to lead the UCC discourse, hitherto appropriated
by political and religious entities, to new directions.
Description
honors thesis; awarded honors
Type
Honors thesisDepartment
International Comparative StudiesPermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/9725Citation
Varghese, Arpita (2015). Personal Laws in India: The Activisms of Muslim Women's Organizations. Honors thesis, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/9725.Collections
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