Click to play videoNew Delhi: Status of Muslim women in Islam and the Muslim society has been a subject of debate time and again. Many Muslim women term their status as being "un-Islamic", "very oppressed" and even "unjust".
Raazia Siddiqui disagrees. Siddiqui, a practising Muslim who prays five times a day, says she is constantly looking for her identity as a Muslim woman in the Quranic verses.
"Islam gives equal status to men and women. I qoute a verse from Quran: Equal in respect, but different in role. It is the society which has made it the way it looks now," says the business graduate.
Muslim feminists say that the Muslims are yet to internalise the teachings of Islam. They feel that while the religion gives women their due, the current practices only showcase male hegemony, segregating them to chulha, chowki and chardiwari.
"During Haj, there is no distinction between women and men and thousands of them move together. Anyone who prohibits women from entering mosques is against the spirit of Islam," says Sayeeda Hamid, a member of the Planning Commission.
They blame intermediaries like the maulvis frm madrassas who've come between women and their God.
"The maulavis and the mullahs belong to the ancient age and whatever they say is not enshrined in the Kuran. The only misinterpret it. The current maulvis and maulanas have to be rejected and their fatwas are not valid," says Farida Khanam an Islamic scholar.
Time and again Muslim women have been given this veil in the form of fatwa's. And for several Gudiyas and Imranas this has held them back. Women Activists say that its "jihalat" - illiteracy - that has made Muslim women vulnerable.
Many Indian Muslim women are searching for answers on their status in society. One of them is 27-year-old Annie Zaidi, a jounalist and an independent working woman.
For her, Islam has always meant some religious tales from elders and bits and pieces from the Quran. Islam, she says, doesn't hold women back, however, it's the wrong interpretations that often do.
"How many maulvis pay their wives for the services at home as it is provided for in the Islam," she questions.
However, those still looking for answers can take comfort form this Quranic verse about men and women - You are members, one of another.
And also from their counterparts in Britain and Canada, where women are conducting Friday and Eid prayers in the mosques and taking up roles as Imams.
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