India's 65 million Muslim women, often called a minority within a minority for their double handicap of gender and faith, are challenging religious medieval laws that have keep them in their place for centuries.

For a change, some mullahs (high clergy) are listening.

In recent years Muslim women have challenged fundamentalist interpretations of Syariah law — which have long allowed men in India to divorce their wives based on trivial matters and deny them financial support — by asking the courts to weigh these up against basic human rights considerations.

On this front a new war has opened up between the right of a school principal to run a school according to secular principles and fundamentalist attempts to make the school heel to perceived Islamic ideals.

Last week, Safia Iqbal, principal of the Scholar's School which provides secular education for children living in the Muslim-dominated Jamia Nagar area of the city, got support from the Darul-Uloom (House of Knowledge) school at Deoband town in northern Uttar Pradesh to run her school the way she sees fit and not as a madrasah (seminary).

In fact, the Darul-Uloom, a spiritual powerhouse which has produced some of Islam's finest preachers (currently serving in mosques around the world, including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Britain and the US) issued a fatwa (a religious edict) against Mohammed Shafi Moonis, a trustee of the Scholar's School.

'Mafia-like grip'

The fact that Moonis is a man of high standing in the local Islamic community, and vice-president of the fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (Islamic Congregation of India), did not prevent Darul-Uloom from declaring Moonis' attempts to seize control of Iqbal's school as haram (not permissible) and kabeera (a major sin).

Iqbal, herself a member of the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board and author of the book: Women and Islamic Law , said the fatwa against Moonis was one which ''upheld the dignity of women'' and a landmark at a time when the position of women in Islamic society is low.

At a press conference last week Iqbal blamed institutions like the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind for reducing women to a position far removed from that originally accorded to women in Islam.

''They exercise a mafia-like grip over Muslims in the name of religion,'' she said.

Schools of thought

While Iqbal has found many supporters for her cause, so too has Moonis.

All last week leaflets championing both sides were keenly distributed in Jamia Nagar (home of the prestigious Jamia Milia Islamia, an independent university) and other Muslim-dominated areas, such as the medieval walled-city built around the historic Lal Qila, or Red Fort.

Moonis accuses Iqbal of misleading the mufti (chief) of the Darul-Uloom, Habeed-ur-Rehman, by not putting the facts before him.

''Questions (she placed before the mufti) were misleading and far from the facts,'' Moonis said.

In fact, Moonis had approached the Delhi High Court in February requesting an order that Iqbal vacate the school where she resides.

But Iqbal stayed put and although she was able to muster the support of parents, she was later forced to shut the school down over the dispute with Moonis.

''Such a popular school should not be closed down,'' said Syed Imam Bukhari, a hereditary Imam (religious leader) of the sprawling 17th century Jama Masjid, built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jehan, opposite the Red Fort.

However, the Shahi Imam (the Imperial Imam) declined to take sides, saying the matter should have been settled peacefully by the parties concerned.

Divorce through courts

But Iqbal's victory is small in comparison to a ruling in May by the Bombay High Court granted to Rahim Bi, another Muslim woman.

On this occasion the court effectively banned the Muslim custom under which an Indian man is able to utter the talaq (''I divorce thee'') three times, even in the absence of his wife, thereby making his marriage void.

In ruling on Bi's petition asking for maintenance from her former husband for herself and her three daughters, the court declared that Muslim men can only seek divorce through the courts, and left it up to the judges to decide matters of financial support following the annulment of a marriage.

Importantly, the court also said that women who were party to the divorce had to be present in court.

Under divorces based on Syariah law, reasons for seeking a divorce can be trivial, such as a poorly cooked meal, a woman's appearance or for simply answering back or speaking out of turn.

As a result the dreaded talaq has been responsible for the destitution of many Muslim women across social classes and educational levels in India.

The ruling works to ensuring transparency in divorce cases and puts an end to the capricious use of talaq , and the denial of maintenance to the divorced wife as she has no documentary proof of divorce when the talaq is issued orally, said Anees Ahmed, a prominent legal advocate.

Uproar against ruling

Seventeen years ago another Muslim woman, Shah Bano, approached the courts seeking financial support from her husband who had divorced her after 43 years of marriage and had thrown her out on the street.

Here the Supreme Court ruled that it could not accept the plea by Bano's husband that he was only bound by Islamic law, the court argued that a husband must assist his wife financially after a divorce if she has no other means.

But such was the uproar by fundamentalist Muslims against the ruling in the Bano case that the central government was compelled in 1986 to dilute it through legislation in parliament that denied Muslim women rights to seek redress through secular laws on divorce and maintenance.

The result was that in several Indian states a divorced woman could not claim maintenance beyond the iddat (three menstrual cycles) period.

Attempts by women's rights groups to have it extended have been strongly opposed by fundamentalist groups like Jamaat-e-Islami Hind and even the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board.

Task in progress

But other groups such as the Muslim Women's Forum, led by Sayeeda Hameed, have been working quietly to ensure that Muslim women in India get equal benefits to those of several modern Islamic societies like Turkey.

''The Bombay High Court ruling is as historic a case as the one by the Supreme Court in the Shah Bano case, and although divorce gives relief when a marriage becomes intolerable it was being misused too often,'' Hameed said.

Those who insist that Islamic law prevails for Muslims are silent when it comes to issues such as the giving of large dowries, a largely-Hindu custom which is rapidly gaining acceptance among Muslims, Hameed added. — IPS