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vinayp · 11-29-2007, 00:41 AM

Quote:

Join us, says Muslim group

Swati Das | TNN

Chennai: Dissident Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen has got support from a quarter that she would be hard put to ignore. The world’s first all-woman Muslim Jamaat Committee, based in Pudukottai in Tamil Nadu, has asked Nasreen to work with them for the emancipation of women in general.
“Why is the government making a single woman into an issue? What has Taslima done? Why can’t the Centre act against the West Bengal government? Those opposing Taslima don’t represent voices of all Muslims. It’s a game of 13% Muslim vote. There’s no difference between Gujarat CM Narendra Modi and the Congress. Modi’s is open politics, while Congress’s does things behind the scenes,’’ said an angry committee convener D Sharifa Khannam.
“Taslima doesn’t need protection. I urge her to come here and work with us. We are democratic, and we will show how to live boldly,’’ she said.
Comparing the Taslima issue and the Wakf land scam in Mumbai, Khannam said: “Those who call themselves Muslims are selling Wakf land and property illegally. Are these real Muslims? How can they represent real Muslims? Instead of making Taslima into an issue, the Centre should pay more attention to terrorism, violence and crime,” she said.
Sharifa is appalled that Taslima was shoved out of a Communist state and termed the West Bengal government timid. At the National All-Women’s Conference in Kolkata in September 2006, it was discussed that the West Bengal government would come up with an education project for Muslim women in five districts. “But when there was massive protest, the project was scrapped,’’ she alleged.
Listing out cases from Shah Bano to Imrana and now Taslima, Sharifa says it’s always vote-bank that drives policy. Governments will fight over sharing of Cauvery waters, but won’t lift a finger for women’s rights. The endless debate over 33% reservation for women is a clear example of how politicians talk in public and how in private work together to scupper the Bill, she said.

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