ISSN 2229-6409 WOMEN’S LINK VOL.26, NO.4 OCTOBER- DECEMBER 2019 RS. 60.00 “Not Respectable Women:” Working Women and Sexual harassment in Colonial India -Geraldine Forbes Decoding Surrogacy: Mothering in Context of Money and Market -Khushboo Srivastava Legal Rights of Indian Muslim Women: Striving for Holistic Development -Juhi Gupta Muslim Women as an Oppressed Minority: Facts and Projections -Simin Akhter Naqvi Indian Women Artists: Their struggles, Accomplishments and the undervalued Art -Alankrita Singh & Ishita Pundir Women as Victims of Violence in Indian Society: A Feminist Perspective -Nisha Education for Muslim girls: Exploring for an inclusive approach -Asiya Nasreen FOR FRESH SUBSCRIPTIONS / RENEWAL Women’s Link subscription for a year through ORDINARY POST is Rs 225 and through Regd Post- one year Rs 300, per copy is Rs 60. the DD (from any nationalised bank payable at New Delhi) in favour of Finance Officer, Jamia Millia Islamia , must be sent through speed post to us at : Professor Sabiha Hussain, Editor-Women’s Link Sarojini Naidu Centre for Women’s Studies Gate 19, Noam Chomsky complex (1st floor) Jamia Millia Islamia, Jamia Nagar New Delhi-110025 OUR FORTHCOMING ISSUES WOMEN AND HEALTH (thematic) JANUARY - MARCH 2020 Editor Women’s Link, Sarojini Naidu Centre for Women’s Studies, Gate 19-Noamchomsky Complex, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi110025 Email: [email protected] WOMEN’S LINK OCTOBER- DECEMBER 2019 Vol. 26 No. 4 PATRON Prof. Najma Akhtar Editorial Board Prof. Sabiha Hussain –Director, Sarojini Naidu Centre for Women’s Studies, JMI Prof. Huma Ahmad Ghosh-Department of Women’s Studies, San Diego State University, CA. Prof. Anisur Rahman- Formerly Professor, Department of English, JMI Prof. Rumki Basu- Professor, Department of Political Science, JMI Prof. Syed Tanveer Nasreen-Prof. Department of History, Burdwan university Prof. Anupama Roy- Professor, Centre for Political Studies, JNU Prof. Farhat Nasreen- Professor, Department of History & Culture, JMI Dr. Shashi Bala- Professor, V. V. Giri National Labour Institute, Noida. Dr. Denzil Fernandes- Executive Director, Indian Social Institute, New Delhi Dr. Firdous Azmat Siddiqui- Associate Professor, Sarojini Naidu Centre for Women’s Studies. Dr. Archana Sinha- HoD, Department of Women’s Studies, Indian Social Institute, New Delhi Women’s Link - A peer-reviewed Quarterly journal Editor Prof. Sabiha Hussain Women’s Link welcomes contributions and letters from readers. Acceptance and editing of the materials received is at the discretion of the editor. The views expressed in the articles are purely those Associate Editor(s) of authors and not necessarily of the editor/publisher. Dr. Meher Fatima Hussain Technical Assistant Don Bosco Technical Team Published by (Tom Abraham) SAROJINI NAIDU CENTRE FOR WOMEN’S STUDIES Jamia Millia Islamia- New Delhi-25 Phone: 011-26987417 (EBPX 4340) Email: [email protected] CONTENTS Page No. Editorial 01 “Not Respectable Women:” Working Women and Sexual harassment in Colonial India 02 -Geraldine Forbes Decoding Surrogacy: Mothering in Context of Money and Market 10 -Khushboo Srivastava Legal Rights of Indian Muslim Women: Striving for Holistic Development 18 -Juhi Gupta Muslim Women as an Oppressed Minority: Facts and Projections 25 -Simin Akhter Naqvi Indian Women Artists: Their struggles, Accomplishments and the undervalued Art 34 -Alankrita Singh & Ishita Pundir Women as Victims of Violence in Indian Society: A Feminist Perspective 40 -Nisha Education for Muslim girls: Exploring for an inclusive approach 47 -Asiya Nasreen Editorial Many decades have passed since the 1975 Conference in Work and employment in this regard provide crucial Mexico and the initiation of the United Nations Decade interventions since employment is critical for poverty for Women. Great theoretical strides have been made reduction and for enhancing women’s status as rights and disappointing practical returns noted. No longer is bearing individuals. This however is contingent on the importance of women in development recognized the nature of work. only by a minority, but neither have women been ‘Legal Rights of Indian Muslim Women: Striving for effectively integrated into development planning. Since Holistic Development by Juhi Gupta discussed the the beginning of the 1980s women have experienced provisions and possibilities under Muslim law and a decline in terms of health and nutrition in parts of the Indian constitution in some key areas concerning every developing region, their educational gains so Muslim women. It also aimed for building awareness promising in the 1970s have slowed down and they about existing laws, especially amongst Muslim have been confronted with new survival challenges due women so that they exercise their rights without to structural adjustment policies. being subjected to prejudice. Simin Akhter Naqvi in In many parts of the world, women have few resources her paper Muslim Women as an Oppressed Minority: or rights and little opportunity to improve their lives. Facts and Projections tried to empirically establish They are restricted in terms of education, ownership the relative deprivation of Muslim women in India of property, monetary return for their work, financial using three key parameters; education, employment opportunities, and opportunities to influence decision- and crime against women; in an attempt to draw making at the level of the family and society. Country attention to actual questions of survival facing these by country, the lack of resources and opportunities women, in the backdrop of the largely Islamophobic open to women is strongly associated with society- and majoritarian milieu where both mainstream wide poverty or lack of development. media debates and parliamentary discussions about Although the literature exploring such a relationship the condition of Muslim women selectively concern between the freedoms accorded women and development themselves with questions of ‘tripple talaq’, polygamy is still small, interest in this area is growing. Those in and ‘purdah’, while seldom bothering to consider grass root development work generally acknowledge issues like educational deprivation, workforce the importance of the status of women in development, participation, nutritional status, sex ratios and causes believing that these restrictions on freedoms are directly and determinants thereof. counterproductive for development. The United Nations The article Indian Women Artists: Their struggles, Millennium Development Goals, for example, include Accomplishments and the undervalued Art by gender issues among the top priorities. United Nations Alankrita Singh and Ishita Pundir analyzed some Development Program (UNDP) and the World Bank exceptionally distinguished women artists in have also done extensive research on gender and the history their long overdue deserving public development. acknowledgment and appreciation that they have Geraldine Forbes in her paper, “Not Respectable earned justly through merit. Women as Victims of Women:” Working Women and Sexual harassment Violence in Indian Society: A Feminist Perspective by in Colonial India focuses on workplace harassment Nisha described the various forms of violence against using incomplete accounts and fragments about the women that take place in public and private sphere. sexual advances and violence women faced. The While Asiya Nasreen in her paper on Education for article is especially concerned with the implications Muslim girls: Exploring for an inclusive approach of this violence for women as workers in the past and identified the reasons as to why Madrasa in India has in the present. In Decoding Surrogacy: Mothering in failed to cater to the educational impotency of the Context of Money and Market, Khushboo Srivastava Muslim girls. The reasons identified are patriarchy discusses the debate around surrogacy. It says that that breeds convenience based interpretation of from the legislatures to household and from media Sharia’ah as well as outdated curriculum that needs discussions to those in academic circles, surrogacy immediate rectification to suit the requirements of the has been variously looked at and discussed. It has modern operative structures. generated many arguments, from commodification of the surrogate to the moral issues of child rearing. Prof. Sabiha Hussain 1 WOMEN’S LINK, VOL. 26, NO. 4 OCTOBER - DECEMBER 2019 “Not Respectable Women:” Working Women and Sexual harassment in Colonial India Geraldine Forbes* Abstract: This essay is an attempt to excavate the Tsuneno, who defied her family and ran away to Edo, history of what is now known as sexual harassment gave somewhat different accounts of what happened (coercion of a sexual nature) in colonial India. between her and the man who assisted her escape. Following the modern legal definition of sexual In one, she called Chikan, a friend who helped her; harassment, I focus on workplace harassment using in another, she wrote she was forced to do “what he incomplete accounts and fragments about the sexual wanted” and third, referred to his “impure intentions” advances and violence women faced. I am especially and called what had happened “terrible.” Stanley concerned with the implications of this violence for originally doubted Tsuneno had been raped because: women as workers in the past and in the present. “This is how historians are trained: we do not take our subjects’ statements at face value, particularly if Like many women, I was electrified by the response they changed their stories, and