Majority of Callers on Helpline for Muslim Women are Men, Says Report
With several petitions having been filed against triple talaq, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) had launched a helpline for women in November last year, in what the board said was a move to empower Muslim women. This was after they had supported triple talaq. But now, reports suggest that most people who make calls to the helpline are actually men. The joint secretary of the All Bengal Muslim Women’s Association told The Hindustan Times that out of ten calls that they get, seven to eight of the calls are from men. The report says that Bengali speaking men call from other parts of the country as well. The helpline was launched in Telugu, Hindi, English, Urdu, Malayalam and Tamil. Even with calls from the other parts of the country in Hindi or Urdu, most callers are men. But what is the reason behind this phenomenon? Head of the Department of Women’s Studies in Burdwan University, Syed Tanveer Nasreen, tells The Hindustan Times, “If 70 % of the calls are from men, it shows that a large section of Muslim women can’t even dare to make a telephone call and speak for themselves. Either they are queries from men and sometimes their brothers or fathers call up and do the talking”.
COMMENTS