The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) is still grappling with the same old problems which have plagued the Muslims for the last several decades. The Personal Law Board is the highest representative body of Muslims. Almost all Muslim organisations, ulema, academicians, legal luminaries, eminent social activists etc. (are) represented in the apex body. The board was formed to safeguard Muslim Personal Law from external interference and introduce social reforms in the largest minority of the country.

The thirteenth session of AIMPLB was held at Mumbai on October 28 - 30", 1999. However, as expected nothing concrete emerged - except for reaffirming its earlier stand - out of its three-day session. There are apprehensions that the AIMPLB will soon be losing its relevance for the Muslim community. Some Muslim intellectuals allege that the Board has been reduced to a legal forum constantly fighting court cases pertaining to Babari Masjid, Muslim Personal Law etc. The Board has largely failed to implement the reforms it had planned for the community.

Syed Shahabuddin, former MP and a member of the Board's executive committee says the apex body needs fresh blood. "For several decades now, it's the same old people who have been running the board. The religious leaders dominate the board, and only religious leadership cannot solve the problems of the community. Ironically Muslim intelligentsia also keep its distance from the community mainstream as it would like to be seen as secular. As a result, the gulf between Muslim intelligentsia and ulema is widening."

Mujahidul Islam Qasmi, one of the founder members and an executive committee member, believes that the structure of the Board needs to be reviewed ... He admits that the board has been rather laid-back in its approach towards social reforms in the community. "Board is unable to interact closely with its member units with the result that it has failed to launch a mass social reform movement in the community.

Advocate Nilofer Akhtar, a personal law specialist believes that ...

"The community has developed no mechanism nor any platform through which women can fight for their legitimate rights. The Board must accept the proposed nikahnama (Marriage contract) to guard the rights of Muslim women" ... Nilofer says that the Board must ... realise how serious is the issue of the exploitation of Muslim women ...

Advocate Yusuf Muchala, legal advisor and member of the Board says unless Muslim women demand their legitimate rights they will continue to suffer. "Women themselves are not demanding their rights and male ego would not allow it to concede these demands. Women have to fight their own battle".

Syed Shahabuddin while agreeing that the Muslim women should organise themselves to fight for their rights says, "the problem is, very few Muslim women are socially active. The need is that more and more women take up these issues and demand the status given to them by Islam ... The AIMPLB must realise that the Muslim community looks towards it for providing leadership, says an expert on the Muslim affairs. "It's time the Board seriously pursued the agenda for the social and economical resurrection of the community".

Maulana Sirajul Hasan, the vice-president of the Board and president of the Jamaat-e-Islami seems to agree with the demand for the re-orientation for the Board. However, he emphasises the need to amend the AIMPLB constitution to accommodate more representation of women in the Board. He says, without the participation of women, the objective of social reforms cannot be achieved. "Social reforms can be brought through the route of social welfare. More efforts are required in the social sector to gain the confidence of the masses." Indian National League leader Sulaiman. Sait points out that the defensive approach of the Board is responsible for its growing irrelevance and weightlessness.

General Secretary Maulana Syed Nizamuddin sees the reactionary attitude' of some sections of the community as the biggest hurdle in the path of social reforms ...Nizamuddin says the Board has decided to set up Shariat Panchayats throughout the country to step up the process of social reforms in the community. "The codification of the Muslim Personal Law which is near completion will also help the reforms." However, how serious and determined the Board is in pursuing its agenda of reform and re-orienting to the changing times will perhaps be known only in its next round of deliberations.

(Source: M.H. Lakdawala in The Meantime, 21 November, 1999)

Eminent Sociologist Imtiaz Ahmad On Codification of Muslim Personal Law

Muslim women have become more dependent on their community because of the growing threat of Hindutva and the, communalisation of civil. institutions like the police and judiciary. Orthodox sections of the Muslim community are trying to keep the community identity intact by exerting greater control over women's lives. This makes Muslim women's struggle for equity and social justice more difficult.

What has been wrong with Muslim Personal Law in India is not that it is necessary unjust and discriminates against women. What is really wrong with it is that it has not been codified. This leaves room for social practices that are discriminatory to women to take precedence. It also leaves loopholes that can be used by unscrupulous men to shortchange their wives. Orthodox Muslim opinion should ... work towards codification of Muslim Personal Law with a view to ensuring equity and justice guaranteed to women by Islam but gradually denuded in social practice. If all schools of law -Shafi, Maliki, Hanafi, Hanbali are taken into account, it should be possible for a good Muslim Personal Law ... to be codified ..

(Source: The Nation and the World, 16 December, 1999)