Author Nuzhat Khan weaves a story of love and loss against the backdrop of Uttarakhand’s forest fire catastrophe in her latest novel.
Author Nuzhat Khan | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Author Nuzhat Khan is among the growing tribe of writers confronting the world’s most pressing issue — climate emergency and the unfolding weather catastrophe — through a genre of fiction set in natural ecosystems. In her latest novel Whistling Woods (Petals Publishers), she highlights the impact of forest fire on people’s livelihood in Uttarakhand along with the story of two strangers — Akshay and Kaveri — who embark on a journey of self-discovery to the hills.
Nuzhat says the book is her way of doing her bit for Nature and the environment. “Growing up in Almora hill station amidst the snow-capped Himalayan ranges of Uttarakhand, I was blown away by the stunning landscape. This is the case with anyone who belongs to the hills. It pained me to watch forest fires ravage the serene hills.” She decided to act by writing a light-hearted story around the issue to reach out to more people. “I thought presenting plain facts and figures would be drab on topics like, what’s fuelling forest fires that continue to scorch hectares of green cover? I have tried to propose a solution, although it may not be the perfect one,” she says.
Her style of storytelling, both evocative and driven by research, helps readers get a grip of the issue while enjoying the budding romance between the lead characters. “I have attempted to capture a mix of human emotions, complexity of relationships, and the innocence of love. The setting helped me run parallels between urban and rural lives. For people in villages, even access to clean drinking water can be challenging ” explains Nuzhat adding that the book has been in the making for five years which also involved several trips to institutes like Avani Bio-Energy plant in Pithoragarh, the Naula Foundation, an NGO that creates awareness on the problems of dying aquifiers (naulas) in the hills of Uttarakhand.
“My interactions with the locals and forest department officials was an eye-opener. They are constantly working to mitigate the problem. Organisations like the Himalayan Institute For Environment, Ecology & Development have developed fire reporting apps that can alert people on forest fires across various locations.”
She points out that the ashram described in the book that works towards empowering girl children was inspired by the Lakshmi Ashram run by a couple in Uttarakhand. “Some of the characters are not entirely fictional,” she hints.
The book also touches upon excessive tourism in the hills. “Several unplanned constructions in the form of resorts have come up usurping the forest cover and triggering landslides. The region is also prone to earthquakes.” She wants people to sit up and take note of Uttarakhand. “Everyone wants to live in the hills. I want to tell them it is beautiful, but everyday life can be challenging.”
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Books / by K Jeshi / December 26th, 2023
Muslim Women Study Circle’s Team Kolkata offering namaz at Botanical Garden, Kolkata
A Kolkata-based collective Muslim Women Study Circle is working towards reclaiming the agency of Muslim women at a time when Islamophobia has been reared into the country’s social and political fabric.
New Delhi:
In April 2019, a collective of Muslim women predominantly belonging to Metiabruz, a suburb in Kolkata, came together to understand the Quran, Hadith, and contemporary news events. As the year progressed, the group actively participated in the protests against the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act. This prompted the realization of a need for a more extensive network of Muslim women from across India, which marked the beginning of the Muslim Women Study Circle (MWSC).
The formation of the MWSC comes at a time of unprecedented rise of islamophobia in India with Indian Muslim women, a regular target of the Hindu right wing. For instance, in 2021, Hindu right-wing men scraped the internet for pictures of prominent Indian Muslim women and uploaded them to an app called Sulli Deals, hosted on GitHub, listing them on “sale” with the intent to humiliate them. A year later they held a similar “auction” with pictures of Muslim women posted on another app called Bulli Bai. Same year, the high court in India’s Karnataka state ruled that the hijab is not “essential” to Islam. Amidst this, digital platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube, and Reddit have accelerated the spread of anti-Muslim hate.
However, as COVID-19 spread in India, MWSC transitioned to the online platform, broadening its reach and significantly enhancing engagement. This transition facilitated the systematic recording, archiving, and dissemination of their sessions through various social media platforms.
MWSC operates as a porous organisation. Volunteers from across the country, including Islamic reverts participate in discussions that are conducted mainly in English, Urdu, and Hindi. Sessions with experts are conducted by the core team or MWSC Chat group, comprising around seven people. Beyond that, MWSC dedicates time to its Muslim Women Mental Health Support Group. These sessions provide a safe space to delve into issues pertinent to Muslim women, addressing challenges and solutions.
In day-to-day functioning, the organisation remains active on multiple fronts. WhatsApp chat groups buzz with conversations spanning the Muslim Women Book Club readings, subjects such as domestic violence, secularism, caste, creative writing politics, citizenship, legal rights, academic scholarships, etc., and the creation of materials for social media platforms.
“We explored ideas at the intersection of politics and spirituality, which were never previously discussed before, and were often overlooked in the context of Muslim women. Moving to an online platform helped us connect with other Muslim women specialising in different fields, such as academics, journalists, mental health professionals, religious scholars, etc. While sharing their knowledge, they also got to amplify their voices. Once we got that momentum, it just kept going,” said Sania Mariam, a MWSC founder and a research scholar of Political Science and Governance at IIT Bombay’s Monash Research Academy.
Bringing Muslim Women to Mosques
Women praying together at Ishat-e-Islam Mosque, New Delhi as a part of the Masjid Project
Despite the global historical prevalence of Muslim women praying in mosques, such spaces are noticeably lacking in India. MWSC’s ‘Muslim Women Masjid Project’, inspired by Al-Masjid-an-Nabawi (The Prophet’s Mosque), not only served as a palace of prayer for both men and women but also sheltered the homeless and the hungry.
The project started by making a catalog of existing women-friendly mosques. Along with open- discussions on “Women in masjids” online, MWSC started with Quranic dars on the importance of women in prayer spaces. They found that a huge number of women longed for offering namaz in Eidgah, instead of being at home waiting for the men to come back.
Aisha Masooma, a volunteer with MWSC from Guwahati said, “It is common to find women’s prayer areas confined to small rooms or basements of the mosques. When I was volunteering for the Assam chapter of this project, I was astonished to find women who had never been acquainted with the idea of visiting a mosque. So many Muslim women told me that the very idea of attending a mosque is an alien concept to them.”
Women the organisation visited different mosques to inquire about spaces for women to pray. “We made a list of such mosques and talked to the Imams. In Kolkata, for example, we had a one-on-one conversation with Imams, and they appreciated the ideas. Even if there was no separate place for women to pray, they allowed women to come, designating them an area in the mosque and promised to make a separate space for women in the future,” said Mariam.
A Petition Challenging the Hijab-Ban
In 2022, with the Hijab ban issue in Karnataka and court proceedings, MWSC recognized that among the arguments and counter-arguments by different parties, the most critical voice of the discourse was silenced, that of young Muslim women who chose to pursue their education as well as their faith.
They believed that the Hijab-row in Karnataka was essentially infantilising, and dismissing Muslim women, forcing them to choose between non-existing binaries such as education or hijab, Indianness or Muslimness, especially at a time when Muslim women are one of the lowestliteracy rates in the country.
Therefore, in July 2022, MWSC challenged the Karnataka High Court’s decision to ban Hijabs in educational institutes in the Supreme Court. Prominent lawyer-activist Prashant Bhushan pro-bono represented the organisation.
While the petition challenged the idea that the two, Hijab and education are antagonistic in principle, it was also meant to create awareness that oppositional forces exist to the country’s increasing saffronisation. As a result, MWSC aimed to create an active role for Muslim women in the public sphere, and demand to creation of more such spaces. “There is a lot of skepticism related to Muslim women owning their agency from the existing political scenario. People always think, about who’s funding them, and which political arm they belong to. There is skepticism from within the community,” said Mariam.
She said that as Muslim women trying to create a forum like MWSC, they are often boxed into distinct categories such as secular Muslims, feminist Muslims, and religious Muslims. “It is difficult for them to imagine that there are Muslim women who want to be committed to their Deen [religion] while achieving a lot in this world,” she told Two Circles.
Backlash and Targeting From Hindu Right-Wing
In India, Muslims have been experiencing discrimination across various spheres, such as employment, education, housing, law, and justice among others. This pattern of discrimination has notably marginalised Muslim women, materialising in their isolation, for instance, a recent study revealed that Muslim women in India are half as likely to get callbacks for entry-level jobs as compared to Hindu women. Another study underscores the compounded disadvantage faced by Muslim women, positioning them as one of the least empowered segments of society. This disadvantage stems from their dual status as women and as members of the minority community in India.
During the Sulli deals incident, certain members of MWSC were subjected to an “online auction” due to their outspoken political views on social media. The organization has consistently encountered online trolling, with a notable example being a video addressing Hindu nationalism that attracted numerous offensive comments. The backlash has emanated from both inside and outside the Muslim community.
Ghazala Jamil, assistant professor at the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University said, “Muslim Women’s organisations like the MWSC can be seen as a corner in the larger public sphere or a satellite public sphere, which can give Muslim women a chance to express their views without feeling they have to maintain silence about or hide their Muslim identity.”
Across the subcontinent, a dynamic wave of Muslim women’s rights networks is actively challenging essentialist perceptions of Muslim womanhood. Situated within the burgeoning Islamic feminist movement, these organisations articulate the multiple identities of Muslim women, cultivating a unique Islamic feminist consciousness as opposed to the idea of ‘universal sisterhood.’
“Instead of criticising these spaces as regressive or causing division, we should recognise them as opportunities for learning within the larger movement for gender equality. Organisations specifically for Muslim women provide a valuable place for them to express themselves without feeling overshadowed by dominant perspectives of Hindu or liberal feminists,” Jamil added.
The founders do not intend to convert the organisation into an NGO but rather see it as a diversified environment where Muslim women may freely express themselves and share their perspectives. “We just wanted to be a collective where women can come, speak, and put their views forward. They develop their agency, they get inspired. We aim to be better Muslims, better Muslim women, more confident Muslim women,” said Mariam.
Tasneem Khan is a student of History at Delhi’s St. Stephens College.
Nuzhat Khan is an independent reporter based in Delhi.
source: http://www.twocircles.net / TwoCircles.net / Home> Indian Muslim / by Tasneem Khan and Nuzhat Khan / January 11th, 2024
At the age of two and a half years, Swaleha Naaz Khan fell down the stairs while playing and broke her hand. This incident marked the first time she visited a hospital. However, for Khan, a patient of Sickle cell disease, it set off a cycle of sickness, incorrect medications, hospital visits, and unsuccessful treatment. Now at 26, she recently completed her M.Sc (Masters in Science) in Computer Science from a private institute in Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh and helps people fight suffering from Sickle cell disease in this small town of Madhya Pradesh.
Facing Problems in Identifying the Disease
Growing up, she constantly experienced severe body pain. Due to a limited medical infrastructure in the city at that time, doctors were unable to identify the source of her pain. Her body would frequently stiffen, prompting her father to assume she was possessed by a spirit or djinn. They sought help from hakims and babas in hopes of finding an explanation for her pain but to no avail. Khan and her family went from city to city in order to get her treated. They even travelled to Nagpur in Maharashtra for this purpose.
Dr. Shrivastav, a doctor at the city government hospital, finally diagnosed Khan with sickle cell disease while she was in 10th grade, after she was brought to the hospital the night before her board exams. “It was for the first time that I received correct treatment,” she went on to say.
The Disease Affected Khan’s Education
Previously, whenever Khan’s condition deteriorated, she was given injections to soothe her unbearable pain. “The injections were given every 8 days, causing me so much pain that I could only sleep on one side. I couldn’t sit down properly. My education was also greatly affected. I often had to miss school,” she explained. Due to being admitted a day before exams, she flunked in 10th grade.
Sickle cell disease [SCD] is a hereditary medical condition that persists throughout a person’s life and affects red blood cells, which in turn impacts hemoglobin – the carrier of oxygen in the body.
Unlike the typical disc-shaped red blood cells found in a healthy person, in SCD, these cells take on a crescent or “sickle” shape. The alteration affects their manoeuvrability in blood vessels, leading to a range of complications such as strokes, vision issues, infections, and bouts of intense pain known as pain crises.
According to Gautam Dongre, Secretary of National Alliance of Sickle Cell Organisations (NASCO), sickle cell disease can cause great damage to people’s lives. “Without accurate diagnosis, individuals with this condition may not live more than 4 years. They can be affected by organ damage within 20 years. Their joints may stop functioning properly, potentially leading to disability. In the absence of proper treatment, it can result in premature death. Otherwise, their entire life may be centered around going between the hospital and home,” said Dongre stressing that timely treatment of the disease is extremely critical.
Creating a WhatsApp Group of Sickle Cell Patients To Help Them
Khan was admitted in 2016, along with two other SCD patients, Deepika and Aishwarya. She had previously thought she was the lone patient suffering from the disease. However, she began to meet more people suffering from the disease. “Aishwarya formed a group of all Chhindwara’s sickle cell patients. We discovered that there are numerous patients with SCD in that district. At the time, we were only 15-16 years old,” she explained.
After she discovered more than 500 SCD patients in Chhindwara, Khan decided to visit the District Magistrate’s office in order to demand a separate hospital ward for them. She says that when she used to visit the government hospital, they had to purchase everything from outside. The only thing they provided was a bed, which was free. She observed that patients coming from remote villages faced several difficulties in accessing proper healthcare due to this.
“We demanded for all patients to get access to Dr. Shrivastav. After that, we asked for the availability of medicines. The whole process was really taxing. After going through several offices and facing rejections, medicines were finally made available in the hospital for free. Rarely does anyone need to purchase something from their own pockets,” Khan stated, proudly.
‘Cared for Me as if I Were Her Own Sister’: A Sickle Patient
22-year-old Nazrana Mansuri, a patient suffering from Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) in Chhindwara, recounted her first meeting with Khan at the hospital. Upon learning that Mansuri is an orphan, Khan assumed full responsibility for her operation. “I used to live with my khala (aunt), who worked as a daily wage earner and didn’t have the means to look after me. Swaleha took all my responsibilities. Despite being unwell herself, she stayed with me throughout the night of the operation. She not only brought me food but also cared for me as if I were her own sister. It’s been two years since my operation, and she still feels like family to me,” Mansuri said.
How Extreme Weather Made Khan’s Condition Worse
Khan said that during wintertime, her blood vessels used to thicken causing her extreme pain.
Dr. Gaurav Kharya, the clinical lead at the Centre for Bone Marrow Transplant and Cellular Therapy, Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, New Delhi, explained that under normal circumstances, sickle cell disease may not pose a problem. However, during hot weather when dehydration occurs, and in extremely cold temperatures when small blood vessels constrict, a crisis can occur. During these episodes, the shape of sickle-shaped cells can become further distorted and obstruct various blood vessels, resulting in the typical symptoms of sickle cell disease.
In 2020, Khan joined the National Alliance of Sickle Cell Organisations (NASCO), after meeting Gautam Dongre. Today, she manages all of NASCO’s work in Madhya Pradesh and helps out hundreds of patients of the sickle cell disease with getting them treatment, diagnosis and recovery.
Shaba Manzoor and Nuzhat Khan are independent reporters based in New Delhi, India.
source: http://www.twocircles.net / TwoCircles.net / Home> Indian Muslim> Lead Story> Science-Health> TCN Positive / by Shaba Manzoor & Nuzhat Khan / October 31st, 2023
