Islamic forces have unleashed a reign of violence in Tamil Nadu against members of the Muslim community, especially women, who question the gender discrimination faced by them in the society. law enforcing agencies are turning a blind eye towards such highhanded actions of the Islamic extremist outfits.
The latest to earn the wrath of these forces is A Kamila, a Tiruchirappalli-based social activist working among women members of the minority and Dalit communities. Wednesday saw activists of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) trying to disrupt a Press meet addressed by Kamila and her associates to highlight the indifference of Tamil Nadu Police towards complaints lodged by them against physical attacks unleashed by the SDPI workers on activists of the Women’s Integrated National Development Trust (WIND), an organisation working for elevating the status of women in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu.
“On June 29, workers of the SDPI led by their leader Khalid physically assaulted activists of the WIND in Sivaganga district. The WIND activists were distributing questionnaires among Muslim women to find out the depth of their awareness about rights of women and whether they were being consulted by the men folks during decision making. The questionnaire was in the form of yes or no. The SDPI activists became furious and physically assaulted us,” Kamila told The Pioneer.
She said Khalid and his associates forcefully took away the questionnaire, tore them apart and physically assaulted the WIND volunteers. “This survey was part of my Ph D thesis “Perception on Muslim women Rights” which I am doing under the guidance of Prof Manimeghalai of the Bharati
dasan University. The WIND is an apolitical organisation and is engaged in highlighting and addressing issues like gender discrimination,” said Kamila.
Though Kamila and her associates approached the Ilaymagudi Police Station, Balaji, the inspector refused to file a complaint against Khalid and SDPI activists. “We are afraid to take any kind of action against them. There will be big backlash from them if we take any action,” Balaji reportedly told Kamila. Her complaint to the Superintendent of Police, Sivaganga district, the home turf of Congress strongman P Chidambaram too fell on deaf ears.
Kamila said the status of Muslim women in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu are worse than that of their Dalit counterparts. “There are hundreds of victims of triple talaq but the male members in the community do not want this to be known by the outside world. Now, these SDPI and other extremist organisations are using ocial media to accuse us of RSS agents,” said Kamila.
The year 2016 saw women constables and head constables of Tamil Nadu Police writing to the then chief minister J Jayalalithaa, pleading with her not to depute women police constables for any kind of duties in riot stricken areas. This was a fall out of the riots in Ambur in Vellore district of the State where women police staff members deputed for riot control were assaulted, abused and molested by male members of various Islamist outfits. Rama Gopalan, founder of Hindu Munnani. had written to union home minister Rajnath Singh seeking his intervemtion in the sensitive matter.