ANKARA- Indian journalist-writer Sanjukta Basu said, "This is the most fascinating thing that India has seen since independence that Muslim women come out on the street, protest about a law, which runs against the secular rally of the country.”

Protest events against the "Citizenship Amendment Act" (CAA), passed in the Indian Parliament last December, turned into clashes between Hindus and Muslims in the country. Violence and violations of the right to live often come to the fore in new citizenship law protests across India, particularly in the capital, Delhi.

During the protests, in which violence against the homes, shops and mosques of Muslim minorities is increasing, Muslim population has been attending the protests actively. In many regions, such as Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka, as well as in some parts of Delhi the government has banned protests. While the violent attacks of the Indian police continue, the thousands of people were detained. More than 50 people have died in the actions.

CITIZENSHIP RIGHT

Indian opponents state that the law has made religious belief a foundation of citizenship and is against the country's system of secular beliefs as new citizenship law CAA grants citizenship rights to “non-Muslim” refugees, who came from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. CAA also gathered an anti-minority reaction, triggered years of tension in the country based on the sectarian distinction between the Hindu majority and the Muslim minority.

While sit-in protests in Jafrabad and the capital's Maujpur region in the northeast of India continued, the leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Kapil Mishra, announced that if the anti-CAA peaceful protests would not end, the police would terminate them. Thereupon the people of India massively took to the streets.

In the events described as India's "biggest violent incident" in the past decade, Indian police are accused of promoting the increasing racist attacks against Muslim minorities on the streets in the capital Delhi and preventing the treatment of injured Muslim citizens.

‘WOMEN KEPT SILENCE TO PROTECT COMMUNITY’S IDENTITY’

We talked about the developments in the country with the journalist-writer Sanjukta Basu. Basu is a writer, photographer and feminist scholar. She writes on women, politics, minority rights, and many other social issues. In 2009 she was awarded the TED Fellowship for her blogging and digital activism. Basu, who had visited the minorities many times, who were exposed to hate attacks described in India as "mob lynching”, said that in India, the dominant population is Hindus and Muslim minorities have suffered many hate attacks over the years.

Apart from the violence and massive actions, there is another ‘first’ happening in the country: For the first time in Indian history, Muslim women went down the streets as the foremost and visible faces of the actions. The demands of the resisting women also includes the right of India's most vulnerable groups, especially poor women, oppressed caste and LGBTQ individuals well.

Pointing out the role of Muslim women who have been active in the protests since the first day, both in quantity and quality, Basu emphasized that the Muslim women have been keeping their silence for years to protect the community’s identity. Basu shared her thoughts on this matter as follows: “So a Muslim woman would not like to talk about domestic violence, because then other people would say: ‘Oh, Muslim men beat their wives.’ Actually, all men beat their wives, whether he is Christian or Muslim or Hindu or whatever. But the moment the minority women talk about it, majority community will get an opportunity to attack the minority men. So the minority women, in order to protect the identity of their community, would not talk about the violence and how they are not allowed to work or go out their home etc.”

WOMEN ARE REVOLTING

Stating that along with the actions, Muslim women overcame their fears against the attacks of the state, Basu said: “Minority women have to fight against the majoritarian patriarchy as well as the internal community patriarchy. There are layers of control on them. They have to challenge this within the home first and then they have to come out and challenge at the national level.”

Basu also stated as follows: “In India there is a huge protest going on across the entire nation with millions of people. This is the most fascinating thing that India has seen since independence that Muslim women come out on the street, protest about a law, which runs against the secular rally of the country. So they come out, for the first time not for the religion, but for secular values.”

MINORITY WOMEN WERE ISOLATED FROM THE MAINSTREAM DEVELOPMENT

Stating that Muslim women, who are currently inspiring women's movements have been excluded by the mainstream feminist movements in the country, Basu underlined that in the current protests, the demands of women, who represent the minority groups that have always been isolated from the main stream democratic area should not be ignored. 

Basu’s statements on the matter continue as follows: “We still have to acknowledge that women across the boards, across the nations and religions and race, are still oppressed by patriarchy. So there is double-patriarchy that minority women are facing. These women face double patriarchy. So minority women have to get rid of the fear that their community getting a bad image. You have to fight your community’s battles. At the same time, you cannot also give up your personal individual rights for the sake of the community. That is also something that women have been doing for the longest time. And it is time we stop doing that.”

‘INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY IS EMPOWERING’

Basu drew attention to that especially the women of Muslim countries such as Turkey, the dynamics of resistance in India and the importance of Muslim women of India hitting the street shall be understood and as a final message she added: “My final message would be to all those Muslim women in Muslim countries, because Muslim women in India have been feeling very vulnerable and scared and now they look very brave on the streets now to lead this current movement. This would be very empowering if you could raise their voice as part of global solidarity from woman to woman, in your countries to raise awareness and to show that they are not alone.”

MA/ Eylül Deniz Yaşar