Being Imrana

Zafar

``Imrana is more a proof of the failure of the state than a failure of Islam in India``

Pertinent point Zafar. The up-keep of personal family laws in Bharat bears testimony to the pluralism and dynamism of the Indian legal system, harking toward a Uniform Civil Code through the auspices of Article 44 would tantamount to legal hegemonisation...a path India should not tread toward.... Uniform Civil Codes as has been proved in Turkey are no ``magic wands``.......

The article is well written, but IMHO you are reaching all the wrong conclusions.

This has nothing to do with education, jobs, ghettoization or whatever. It`s very convenient to blame a vague concept like ``failed state`` on the Imrana mess. The facts remain that:

1. A ridiculous fatwa was issued;
2. Imrana and her family accepted it;
3. Both the issuing and the accepting parties were Muslim.

Forget what Arun Jaitley says, as a politican it is in his blood to be opportunistic. But what prevents ordinary Muslims like Imrana from defying an obviously unjust and laughable ``judgement`` with the support of her family and community? What the hell kind of man is her husband, who meekly accepts the fact that his wife will now perforce be his mother!!! As a human being, if my father had raped the woman I love, I would have cut his frigging balls off. And the rest of my family and friends would have probably stood in the background and denied they ever saw anything. End of story.

Mian...I know the Indian state has failed you. Indian state will always fail you. Indian state does not care about you. So why dont you leave the Indian state and go to the Land Of The Pure ? Surely you will be happier there. And please take everybody with you ..Imrana , her husband , her 20 odd children ,her father-in-law and also the mullahs from Deobandh. Khudahafeez.

Re: # 1

Thanks for seeing the point.

``Actually, as per a report, the fatwa came in response to a query made by a journalist seeking information to write his copy. Deoband has now said that the fatwa had nothing to do with the Imrana case, as no such request or clarification was sought by Imrana or anyone else on her behalf. ``

``Remember the recent news in West Bengal in which about 20 married Muslim students, all women, walked on their fogey husbands in search of a better life with education and career? Do you need more proof? ``

I quite agree with this analyses regading Imrana as a ``media story`` to reinforce the muslim stereotype - except for the last bit on reassigning the blame for Imrana on the state`s failure to educate and empower the women folk...................if you can understand how most of the mullahs brainwash the poor into submitting to their interpretations then you would understand that the mullahs have to equally share the burden of the blame................It is time these Deobandis were shown that they are not above the Indian Cosntitution and its secular laws...............if they interfere with Criminal Jurisprudence then the courts should suo motu take necssary action..............

Re: # 2

Burpinder, Imrana and her husband don`t exist in vaccum. They are products of Indian society, and they breathe under the same sky like any other Indian. Rule of Law is very important for a state to succeed in ensuring justice; and education, not just literacy, and employment are pivotal in ensuring an individual`s empowerment. Take yourself. If you were not educated and employed, would be able to look much beyong the banyan tree of your village panchayat?

Re: # 3

No Mike. The Indian state has not failed me. But it sure has failed millions of its citizens by not providing with adquate access to education and healthcare. Amid grinding poverty, Indian police system and the judicial system in a nightmare for millions--a kafkaesque proposition. Thanks for your suggestion to go to the land of the pure. You can keep it.

Re: # 5

Hi. I have said what you are saying in this para: `` am not saying that Maulvis and madrasas are doing Indian Muslims very good. I am not saying that there is no need to change the outmoded personal laws. I am not saying that Indian Muslims should leave everything in the hands of the Ulema.`` And I mean it.

FYI

Imrana: The Rape That Never Was
Adil Salahi, Arab News

The furor over Imrana Ilahi, the Indian woman at the center of the fatwa concerning rape by a woman’s father-in-law, has not died down yet. Last week, I published an article under the title “Can a Rapist Be Rewarded?” in which I discussed the subject without referring to the fatwa itself, making clear that I had not seen it. I was responding to press reports that spoke of a fatwa saying that the woman must separate from her husband and should treat him as her son. Some reports added that she could marry her father-in-law who allegedly raped her. My article sought to clarify these issues. I made clear that in a case of rape the woman is blameless unless it is proven that she had tempted, encouraged or otherwise facilitated her own rape. I made clear that the reported view that Imrana’s marriage was terminated as a result of the rape is grossly mistaken, and the suggestion that she could marry her father-in-law is absolutely wrong and has no basis in Islamic law. The following day, my article was copied in full in a paper called The Asian Age, but it was given a different title “Imrana: Fatwa is absurd and infuriating”. While I am glad that the information I gave was thus circulated to wider readership, I am unimpressed by the twist given to my article by the change of title. Although I stated that the suggestion that a marriage is nullified as a result of rape is absurd, I did not, and could not, comment on the fatwa itself, because I had not seen it.

Since the publication of my article new information has been published to put the whole question under new light. IslamOnline posted a special report by its own correspondent, Mr. Zafarul-Islam Khan, which shows that there have been several twists in the case. Under the title “Imrana Case... Rape of Truth in India”, the correspondent who made a thorough case of investigative journalism, going to the village where the case took place and speaking to the mufti who issued the fatwa, gives a totally different picture.

Mr. Khan’s efforts show that Imrana and her husband claimed that she was raped by her father-in-law during the night and that he fled when she screamed, but the screams were not heard by anyone in her tiny house or by any immediate neighbors. “This was strange as it is summer time when all people living in the tiny interconnected houses sleep on the terrace or in the open courtyards inside their homes.” The correspondent discovered that the allegation was made in the midst of a family dispute about selling the family home, with the father-in-law wanting to sell and the couple objecting because they had nowhere else to go. The report mentions that on July 2, a team of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board visited the village and met the alleged victim, her relatives and a number of village people, but concluded that no rape had taken place and that the case was simply one of dispute over property.


Unscrupulous

Journalism

Such a local family dispute could never have made headlines except for the fact that it provided those opposed to Islam and its laws with ammunition to bash Islam. When inaccuracies and deliberate slants are added in the reporting of the case, it becomes easy to start a storm in a teacup. In Imrana’s village, a local elders council was called to look into the case, as is customary in rural areas in the Indian Subcontinent. A local junior scholar, or maulavi, told the council that the woman was now forbidden for her husband as she was like his mother now, and that she should marry the rapist. In reporting this, the media described the village council as a “Shariah Panchayat”, or a council of Islamic scholars, which is totally untrue. The village council is composed of the elders in the village, and these people may have had no Islamic education whatsoever, or indeed any education. They attend because of their position in the village.

This is the sort of material that the media loves: A family rape and an outrageous verdict that brings tragic consequences on the whole family. Thus, reports flew everywhere bringing Imrana and her village unwanted fame. A further twist took place when an outfit based in Delhi, calling itself Muslim Women Forum, sent two representatives to meet Imrana. “They bribed her with five thousand rupees and asked her to say to the media and police that she would not accept the ruling of the Shariah law and would only go for the civil court’s judgment to safeguard her rights.”

It was much later that the Dar ul-Uloom fatwa came into the picture. An Urdu newspaper, Rashtriya Sahara, asked the mufti in that Muslim seminary to give his opinion in the case. He opined that “the woman is now forbidden for her husband and should leave him.”

There are two important points pertaining to any fatwa by any scholar. The first is that the fatwa, or ruling, is given on the basis of the question put to the scholar issuing it. We do not know in what form the question was put to the scholar by the paper. Hence, we cannot comment on it, except to say that the reported view is totally mistaken. The other point is that a fatwa is binding only on the scholar giving it. It is a legal opinion.

But the case and the fatwa gave fresh ammunition to those in India who want the Muslim Personal Law to be abolished. Various communist, socialist and rightist parties were in chorus demanding the enforcement of a Common Civil Code to be made applicable to all citizens in India. This means the abolition of the Islamic law in personal and family matters, in favor of such a code that is subject to change by parliamentary acts. This is the crux of the matter. People who have a grudge against Islam will always try to exploit any situation to bash Islam, Muslims and Shariah. In these days when the media is always on the lookout for exciting news, the truth is often lost. The IslamOnline correspondent mentions that “on June 30, Dr. Tasleem Rahmani, president of the Muslim Political Council, called a press conference in which he showed a 3-hour video in which Imrana appeared saying that no rape had taken place, and that she was given five thousand rupees by a ‘feminist organization.’”

Should we wonder why Muslims feel maligned everywhere? In a case like this, the truth is lost and false allegations are made. A bribe is given to an illiterate woman, for whom the petty sum of five thousand rupees appears large indeed, to come up with falsehood so that the campaign to bury the Muslim Personal Law in India could be carried forward.

``.........failure of Islam in India..``

If by this you mean Islam as a spiritual retreat of the IMs then you are correct, but by this statement if you want to exempt the Deobandi school from its failure to re-interpert it`s worlview in the light of modernity and exhorting those who listen to them to embrace a modern world view and try and integrate with the modern economies then you are palpably wrong. Salman Rushdie is indeed right on this issue!!

Re: # 9

Hi. I`ve seen this. That`s the problem with media. Without confirming anything, they can invent a story and create a national debate around it.

Re: # 9
``The other point is that a fatwa is binding only on the scholar giving it. It is a legal opinion``

What bumkin.............idiotic explanations ...........a complete parody and shows the extent to which these mullahs can go and connive with the rapist..................did anybody find out ow much the mullahs were paid by the father in law???

Re: # 10

I am not exempting the Deoband seminary or for that matter any other institution that refuses to grow and change with the times. In dynamic human societies, no religion can afford to remain isolated and moribund. I hope it is clear now.

``...........to come up with falsehood so that the campaign to bury the Muslim Personal Law in India could be carried forward.``

More lies and falsehood...............what has rape got to do with muslim personal laws?? These tactics are well known by every educated muslim. Pay a few chavannis to these mullahs and they can give you a fatwa on any damn thing you want them to give .................let us stop these mullahs from making a parody in the name of Islam!!


http://news.indiainfo.com/2005/07/04/0407imrana-chargesheet.html

Police chargesheets accused in Imrana rape case
Monday, July 4 2005 18:15 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Muzaffarnagar (UP): Police today (July 4, 2005) filed chargesheet against Ali Mohammed, the main accused in the Imrana rape case, with details of the victims`s recorded statement and accounts of more than 12 witnesses, including her family members.

The chargesheet also included Imrana`s medical report and her statement recorded before the magistrate as also those of her brothers, sister-in-law and brother-in-law, police said.

Re: # 6

Perhaps not, but my point is, looked at from the point of view as human interest story, the whole episode makes no sense at all. What kind of idiot would accept a ridiculous fatwa like that? You`d just laugh it off and carry on with your lives, wouldn`t you? So why can`t Imrana & her husband do it? No banyan panchayat is going to enforce some diktat issued by some stinky mullahs if the woman and her husband carry on with their lives and the perve father in law is thrown to the mercies of the local constable. If the human spirit can show some spark, society will and does follow! Our assumption that most Indians are victims is all ballstalk.

Re #9- Succubus

It`s people like this Adil Salahi, with their victim mentality that are causing unmeasurable damage to the Muslim community. While a lot of what he has said makes sense, it is statements like this: ``Such a local family dispute could never have made headlines except for the fact that it provided those opposed to Islam and its laws with ammunition to bash Islam`` that infuriates every right thinking person in thso country.

I`d like to remind Mr. Salahi that the ``village elder``who opined that ``the woman was now forbidden for her husband as she was like his mother now, and that she should marry the rapist`` was, in his own words, a ``local junior scholar, or maulavi``. Why that idiot didn`t have the sense or the balls to stand up for a rape victim is open to debate, but isn`t that the primary reason everyone`s up in arms about the whole thing?

And what about that Dar ul-Uloom mufti who ``opined that `the woman is now forbidden for her husband and should leave him`.” Was he acting on his own initiative as well?

You know, it pi$$es me off no end to see these apologists coming out and saying things like ``Islam does not condone rape``. NO CIVILISED HUMAN SOCIETY CONDONES RAPE. Why is it so hard to just put the blame squarely on the stinkymullahs and get along with the process of reform that obviously a lot of good Muslims could do with?

Ballukhan ``What has rape got to do with muslim personal laws``- spot on- ATTABOY! Unless ordinary Muslims- the kind that don`t walk out of meetings at work so that they can pray 5 times a day, or don`t shove their victimhood in your face at the slightest provocation- unless these people tell the Deobandis and others of their ilk squarely where they can shove their stupid fatwas, nothing is going to happen. More power them!