Gujarat riot victim faces boycott

Wednesday, April 26, 2006 (Kumha):

The Supreme Court directive to reopen the 1200 Gujarat riot cases has meant several things to several people.

For many families it offers them a sense that justice will be served, for others it's a sense of closure, but for one family near Ahmedabad, it offers them a chance to identify members of a killer mob.

New hope stirs in Sayeedabanu Malek. But it is laced with fear.

Three years ago, tongue tied with terror, she was unable to name the seven men who led a mob on Feb 28, 2002.

She had watched them rampaging through the tiny hamlet of Kumha on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, burning and looting homes including her own.

Aligarh, April 24: The Vice Chancellor, Mr. Naseem Ahmad welcomed the ruling of the Supreme Court as regards the Minority Character of the Aligarh Muslim University. The petition of the AMU against the Judgment of the Division Bench of the Allahabad High Court has been admitted by the Supreme Court of India. The Supreme Court has restored the Character of AMU as it was prior to the litigation at the Allahabad High Court. It has stayed observations of the Allahabad High Court as regards Sections 5(2)(C) and 2(L) of the AMU Amendment Act 1981. The University was allowed to run courses in Theology and under Section 5(2)(C) of the AMU Act. The Minority Character of the University will stay minus Muslim reservations during the pendency of this case. The Supreme Court also agreed with the long standing argument of the University that Azeez Basha verdict was bad in law and therefore, it referred it to a higher bench for review.

POLL THEME - THE MUSLIM FACTOR

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Major Muslim organisations have thrown their weight behind the LDF. C.
Gouridasan Nair on what this means for the Kerala elections
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When the going is good, everything falls into place. That seems to be the case with the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front in Kerala, where the first phase of polling will take place on April 22. Nothing went right for the LDF in 2001, when it suffered a humiliating rout. Almost all major communities were against it, and the Muslims were particularly hostile. But since then, the LDF romped home in all major by-elections, the 2004 Lok Sabha elections and the 2005 local body polls. Today, it's "Leftward ho!" for all major non-Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) parties and organisations in Kerala.

A Malayalee Muslim martial arts teacher trains women, children in Manjur
By Jehovah. G, Manjur (Kerala)

If you think Muslim women in India are leading a conservative lifestyle, think again. Belying all notions, Shamcera, a Muslim woman in Kerala, is teaching rural children and women with Kalari, the ancient martial art form of Kerala.

Trained in the art of Kalari, the martial art native to Kerala, Shamcera, is today a woman with a mission.

How did it start? Once Shamcera became a victim of eve-teasing by a miscreant who also attacked her little boy. The helplessness suffered on that occasion left a deep impact on her mindset and she decided to learn Kalari.

Breaking the stereotypes about Muslim women
By Sujoy Dhar

Far from the feminist ferment in urban India, in a nondescript village in the eastern state of Jharkhand, Razia Khatun swaps her Muslim woman's veil for activism to rid her village of middlemen, moneylenders and ills like child marriage.

Unaware of Razia's fight, about 300 km away in Kolkata, the resurgent and culturally progressive state capital of West Bengal, two teenaged Muslim sisters -- Sanno Babi and Sakila Babi -- are fighting the same stereotypes but differently.

In a city where squalid Muslim ghettos coexist with glitzy shopping malls and tinted IT buildings, the two sisters from an archetypal slum make it to a ring in a south Kolkata park every afternoon, dump their veils and practise boxing for two hours with a view to becoming champions.

Muslim India struggles to escape the past

Randeep Ramesh in Mumbai
Wednesday April 5, 2006
The Guardian

On the sprung floor of a Mumbai dance studio standing amid a huddle of male and female dancers is a young woman, dressed in tight sequinned clothes, sucking on a cigarette. She is shouting at her troupe.

It is difficult not to notice 19-year-old Mumait Khan. Tattoos ride on her shoulders and her lower back and her sinuous dance routines have made her one of the most sought-after "item girls" to roll out of Bollywood. "Item" is Mumbai film-speak for a raunchy musical number slipped into mainstream Hindi films.

Sky is the limit for women in India: Parade commander

Pune, March 20, 2006, Michael Gonsalves (IANS)

A Muslim girl from a tiny village in Jammu and Kashmir created history by shattering a male bastion in the Indian military when she commanded a passing out parade at the Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC) here.

"It was a great day for me and I was on top of the world," Surgeon Lieutenant Commander Wahida Prizm, who led the colourful passing out parade and commissioning ceremony on the AFMC grounds March 13, told IANS.

"I could not believe my ears until I was told that I had been really selected for the coveted role," said the mother of two-and-a-half-year-old son Aynoor.

Govt studies why Muslim kids fail
Sumit Pandey
CNN-IBN

Posted Saturday , April 01, 2006 at 07:47
Updated Saturday , April 01, 2006 at 15:20

New Delhi: The Union Government has embarked on yet another survey among minorities that could create a political turmoil.
The National Commission for Minority Education, under the aegis of the Union Human Resource Development Ministry, is investigating why and how many students from minority communities fail in Class X Board exams.
"The CBSE has told us that among Class X students who fail in the Board exam, the percentage from the Muslim community is on a higher side. This is particularly in Maths and Science," says Justice M.S.A. Siddiqui, Chairman of National Commission for Minority Education Institution.

Fly-by-night bridegrooms
http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/jun202004/sl2.asp

The practice of minor Muslim girls being married off to rich and old Arab men continues. A look at dowry practices.

The long-winding narrow lanes in the desperately poor areas of Hyderabad; the dark, claustrophobic, one-room houses; the deadened souls and the emotionally-drained hearts know it all and yet won’t speak. In fact, they will deny it. Because, if they accept the truth, then they would be forced to confront the bitter truth: that their girl children are available for as little as Rs 5,000 to satisfy the lust of doddering old Arab men.

Action Aid (India) has commissioned a research project, in collaboration with the Indian Social
Institute, New Delhi, on the Socio-Economic and Educational Conditions of the Indian Muslims. \

The project intends to come out with a comprehensive report on the actual living conditions of the Muslims, who rank among the poorest and most deprived sections of Indian society.

If you have any information or material on the subject which you think might be useful and which you would like to share with us do get in touch with us. We are helping to co-ordinate this research project.

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