Entering the Calicut Trade Centre in Kerala’s Kozhikode on the evening of Saturday, July 15, for the CPI(M)’s national seminar on the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), one couldn't help but notice the large number of men who occupied most of the seats in the audience, with women being present few and far between. Conspicuous by their minuscule presence among the audience were women in headscarves, despite the widespread understanding that Muslim women will be significantly impacted by the implementation of the UCC. In the two days after the seminar, social media has been rife with discussions over the event not having a single Muslim woman speaker along with the negligible presence of Muslim woman attendees. Some believe that this was the CPI(M)’s strategy to appease the leaders of Samastha, an organisation of Sunni Muslim scholars.
TNM spoke to Kadeeja Mumthaz, writer and chairperson of the Forum for Muslim Women’s Gender Justice, who had received an invitation from the CPI(M) to attend the seminar but chose to stay away. Kadeeja said that she had attended the seminar’s organising committee meeting and realised that it would only be a political meeting not an in-depth discussion of women’s rights. “A seminar that discusses the UCC should also involve discussions about women’s rights and personal law reforms. I understood from their response that it was to be a public meeting to jointly oppose the UCC and that the subject of women’s rights would not come up,” she said.
It was anticipated that the seminar would be a male-dominated event when the CPI(M) released its list of speakers ahead of the programme. The only two women on the list were Beena Philip, the mayor of Kozhikode corporation, and P Sathidevi, the state Women’s Commission chairperson. However, at the seminar, senior CPI(M) leader PK Sreemathy also got a seat in the front row on stage, while the other two women sat at one end of the back row. Sreemathy’s chance to speak came at the very end, by which time the hall had almost completely emptied out, as buses that brought attendees from different parts of the district began to leave. Neither Beena nor Sathidevi got a chance to address the meeting.
When TNM approached Sreemathy for her comment on the lack of representation of Muslim women on stage, she said, “No comment about that. This is not the place to make such a comment, is it?” When pursued further, her responses were surprisingly simplistic. “I belong to the CPI(M), the host. Those invited to the event should be given priority. In a family, aren't guests served first, and don't members of the family eat later? That is what happened here too,” she explained.
When asked why the party’s invite did not reach Muslim women, Sreemathy responded, “This is a double-edged sword. Many of them wouldn't come, actually. There is the problem that they might say what is in their mind. They might be afraid of its consequences. There could have been issues like that.”
To the observation that there were some Muslim women in the audience, but none on stage, Kozhikode mayor Beena Philip responded, “They wouldn't have come. They are confused. The men who sat here have understood a small solution to the community's many confusions.” When asked why she thought so, Beena further said, “Isn't that how the world is? There may be a few women like us who can claim to be emancipated. But basically, cultural psychology plays an important role in our approach and outlook. That is what meetings like this are for. Here, when a subject is approached from multiple angles they think very rationally and logically. We unlearn a lot of ideas within ourselves, we learn something new, reflect upon it, and we construct new ideas.”
Beena then added that even the voices of revolutionary Muslim women may not be heard outside. “When you come across Muslim women, you see that they are revolutionaries. But their voices are not heard outside. Because if they speak up, they will be isolated, and not because they do not have ideas and thoughts. The women within the community who try to fight face isolation and censure,” she said.
Beena explained that the party did not “call anyone thinking of them as women or men”. “We invited everyone, including all religious sects and organisations. Leaders of Muslim religious organisations were in attendance and they opened up. But they have their own beliefs that say that men and women cannot be treated equally, as one speaker said here. Yet they came here and respected this,” she said.
When TNM pointed out that the few Muslim women who attended the seminar appeared to have been from party families, Beena observed, “The fear of Communists is still very strong among Christians and Muslims, at least in orthodox families.”
A day after the event, CPI(M)’s Kanathil Jameela MLA made a statement justifying the lack of representation of Muslim women. She reportedly said, “There were women representatives on the stage ... Apart from that, leaders of the Muslim community were also there to talk on behalf of Muslim women. That's enough.”
Speaking to TNM, Democratic Youth Federation of India (CPI(M)’s youth wing) member DK Ramla said, “We have a leader, and we will follow what he says. If there is a need for women to speak, we have women’s organisations who will come to speak if invited.” When asked if she didn't think the absence of women’s speakers was an issue worth addressing, Ramla said, “I have felt it is an issue, but today’s seminar also had time constraints. Different religious leaders spoke here today, but none of them were women. All these religious organisations also have a women’s wing, for us to work independently. We have that freedom.”
Some of the seminar’s women attendees had stronger views to share on the subject. Jayasree, an area committee member of the CPI(M)’s All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) said, “That is a good question, and it deserves a good answer. We believe that it is a genuine concern and that it is something that needs to be opposed. We wish to raise it in our committee meetings.”
Shameena, a town area committee member of the AIDWA, said, “The Muslim community is like that, it is the priests who are decision-makers. As an event led by the party, it would have been good if more women had been brought in.”