In Conversation with Zakia Soman: The face behind Triple Talaq movement

 

Zakia Soman is an activist from India. She is the head of the human rights group Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA). In 2014, she received the Outstanding Women Achievers award from the National Commission for Women.

"We need women to come together it is not easy but is happening and we hope to make our democratic setup with more leader talking about gender equality and human rights."- Zakia Soman

1.      Your organisation, Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, under your leadership played a key role in taking the triple talaq movement from a mere table talk to an all India movement what was the motivation behind it?

I think every woman have different inspirations there is a lot of diversity even for me it was the courage I gathered from my own personal journey as I was in a very abusive marriage for 15 long years but everything changed when I saw women survivals of 2002 communal riots. I saw them losing their family members, houses and these women had to struggle a lot to get justice and most of them still continue to struggle with it. Majority of these women from marginalised group with high rate of college drop outs but yet they had courage to fight which gave me the courage to fight for them and with them for justice and equality and that is why acting against instant triple talaq was in list of the issues.

2.      In India women are already struggling with domestic violence and gender inequality in almost every sphere of their lives how difficult it is when a war zone situation erupts?

We live in a diverse society so it becomes easy for any political party to run an agenda that divides us and communal roits are one such manifestation and it doesn’t matter what community you belong but when such scenario build up everyone suffers but women also fall victim to sexual assault, they pay the worst prize and if you are someone from slum no one cares.

3.      Now, if we go back to where we started what output do you expect now that the Triple Talaq bill has been passed do you it has a victory for Muslim Women?

All women are entitled to legal justice we live in a democratic setup. We already have Hindu and Christian marriage laws and we have been demanding Muslim Family law based on the Quranic Law, like instant triple talaq is not validated by Quran there is procedure to be followed so we want and need this law to protect our personal laws based on our constitutional parameters. I think law against instant triple talaq is a beginning towards and every good thing is welcomed.

I don’t mean laws can change the society we need to educate and make both men and women socially aware and teach them virtues of equality. I think a progressive society is the one with empowered women.

4.      What now do the Muslim women foresee and how do you plan to approach the upcoming difficulties?

Education, of course it is always the primary concern of our organisation but I think there is also a lack of employment opportunities when it comes to Muslim community but when we talk only about women, condition is even worse. I also see the general mindset which tries to reimpose the patriarchal ideals. There is a lot we need to work. We are already very holistic in approach and working actively running our on ground centres called Karvah where we teach them their constitutional right, we educate them, help in personality development and finding job opportunities.

I have been working within the Indian Muslim community for a very long time and it is a marginalised community it takes time to see some kind of progress but still we try our best to make them independent and aware enough to fight for their basic human rights in ten states.

5.      Despite, so many efforts and steps to empower Muslim women why are the women themselves reluctant to come on one stage, what is stopping them for uniting on topic like human right or their right to education?

I think it has improved a lot in last 3-4 years, I mean reason it was easy to crush Shahbano case was because she was one voice and now there are so many hundreds of them becoming one voice it is difficult to ignore or crush them, but you are right it is not easy and this problem is not exclusive to my community we find in almost every community, women are struggling but at the same time we have new voices and thoughts emerging. I have people praising the work of our organisation but they aren’t very vocal we need those voices which support us but not out loud to come forward too. 

6.      What do you expect from the millennials of the community in terms of human right?

I just want them to bridge the huge gap we now have in our country because women all around the world undergo same kind of harassment at some or the other point in their life. We cannot develop if we decide to stay within ourselves, women rights are human rights and so we need all the women irrespective of their divide to come forward, that is how we can uplift the society and that is exactly what the youth should work towards.

7.      As a woman what were the major challenges you faced as an activist and what will be the road ahead for you?

The patriarchal forces who were opposing us, also it becomes easy for people to target me because I am woman especially my personal life. I have also had experience of people circulating messages on WhatsApp against me but also it is no different for men who are working for social reform and I am very clear about the road because movement has expanded and still is and more democratic leader will come up, I am certain to take forward what I have started I have nothing to hide.

 

 *Note; The interview was taken as part of my Bachelor's assignment in 2019. This was a telephonic interview. It was submitted to Faculty of Journalism, MSU in the same year.