Women's rights or Islamophobia?

Women's rights issues have become a conflict of loyalties for Muslims when they can be used as an excuse for repression by a government in these polarized times. Blanket generalisations about patriarchy are not helpful when many cultural and economic issues are entwined. 

Instant Triple Talaq is the practice in which a husband can divorce a woman by merely repeating the word 'Talaq', meaning 'I divorce you', three times, even by email or text message. In many Muslim countries it is banned, but it was only in 2017 that the Supreme Court in India declared it unconstitutional after a long struggle by campaigners. It has remained a contentious issue, especially after the Indian Parliament went further and criminalized this type of divorce in July 2019.

"Holy Rights", directed by Farha Khatun is a documentary showing the panorama of reactions, in the context of campaigning for women's rights. Muslims are a minority in India, and the demand for women's rights is entangled with resistance to discrimination against Islam by the political majority. Many see the Koran as sufficient protection and view this new law as an attack on Islam.

Farha answered questions from The Prisma, after the film was shown at Visions du Reel online this year. She talks about her view of activist film-making; the way that class impacts on women's rights; and especially about the way women are beginning to speak for themselves instead of being spoken about by men.

This interview was first published in The Prisma Multicultural Newspaper on 24th August 2020 and can be read in full with illustrations here: https://theprisma.co.uk/2020/08/24/womens-rights-or-islamophobia/