Muslim Women in India

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The God Who Sees

“O my creator, I plead before you, implore you time and time again. In the next incarnation don’t make me a girl child. In hell instead let me wane.” (An Eastern UP Folk song quoted by Quratulain Hyder in Chaar Novalettes). “Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her. The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert . . . And he said, ‘You are now with child and you will have a son. You shall name him Ishmael (God hears), for the Lord has heard of your misery.’ She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: ‘You are the God who sees me,’ for she said, ‘I have now seen the One who sees me.’” Genesis 16:6b, 7a, 11, 13

Zubeida in India

Zubeida was married at the age of 14, left by her husband at 23, and is now the mother and sole supporter of her son and two daughters. She works hard as a domestic helper but barely makes enough money to feed her children, let alone pay for their education. While Zubeida labours, her eldest daughter, seven years old, looks after the younger two as they play in a park near to her employer’s house. Soon the children will need to find work themselves though, to help supplement the family’s income. Stories like Zubeida’s are familiar throughout the subcontinent and especially among the Muslim population. More than half of the world’s poor and needy are Muslim and the majority of these are women and children. Divorce or abandonment, especially among the poor, is not uncommon. Frequently the wife is left caring for the children with no financial compensation and little income generating ability.

60 Million Muslim women in India

Often these women are neither educated, nor able to provide their children with education. Of the estimated 60 million Muslim women in India, almost 2/3 are illiterate. In the north Indian state of Haryana, the illiteracy rate among Muslim women is a staggering 98%. A lack of education often leaves women ignorant of legal and social resources available to them. Though we are overwhelmed, God is not daunted by the great need. Christ came to preach Good News to the poor, proclaim freedom for the prisoners, to release the oppressed and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour (Lk. 4:18, 19). Do we pray and act according to this truth?

Prayer for the Muslim Women in India:

* Pray that many Muslim women of India would come to testify along with Hagar, “I have now seen the One who sees me”.

* Pray for Indian believers to rise to the challenge of reaching Muslim communities with wisdom and understanding.

* Pray for Christian families working in Muslim communities that they might model righteous family values.

* Pray for literacy advocates working among Muslim women and for easy-to-understand Bible translations to be made available for women and young people.

Background information, map, video and statistics on India can be found here.

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One Response to “Muslim Women in India”

1
Taiyab Says:
January 25th, 2008 at 9:20
The muslim women in India are still deprived of many benefits. The muslim leadership should awake itself to this alarming situation and try to arrange the avenues of education to these “poor” women. But one thing I want to clarify that it is not the “purdah” which is the reason for muslim women’s backwardness in every sphere of life, but the attitude of men. Men in the muslim society should be aware of the fact that the muslim community cannot prosper without the equal participation of men and women of the community. Only then we can do justice to women also.