Hyderabad, TELANGANA  / Pune, MAHARASTHRA : 

Padma Shri awardee Sayed Mehboob Shah Qadri has been working to ensure a more gender-equal society among Muslims for 50 years now.

New Delhi :

Sayed Mehboob Shah Qadri, or ‘Sayed bhai’ as he is endearingly called, is humbled and ecstatic in equal measure on winning the Padma Shri. 

The 89-year-old has been working with the Muslim Satyashodak Mandal (MSM), a progressive and reformist Muslim organisation, for 50 years now.

On 25 January, a day before Republic Day, the Narendra Modi government announced the list of Padma Shri awardees for 2020 — Qadri was among the 21 named. 

Just two weeks prior to announcement of the list, Qadri and his team from MSM had met PM Modi in Delhi and submitted a memorandum backing the Uniform Civil Code (UCC).

“The PM received it graciously. I told him the UCC should be brought into force immediately because our women need to be given equal rights,” Qadri tells ThePrint.

The Uniform Civil Code seeks to bring all religious personal laws under one umbrella. The BJP has promised to bring the UCC in its 2019 Lok Sabha manifesto.

Champion of gender equality

Qadri says it was an 1965 incident in his family that completely changed his perception towards equality and gender rights. His 18-year-old younger sister, then married with two children, was given triple talaq by her husband. “I was stunned that he could just abandon my sister and her children. I knew I needed to do something,” Qadri recalls.

Qadri had his sister enrolled in a tailoring programme, and knew that this would be a defining moment of his life. “She passed away two years ago — awaiting justice. I will never forget that,” he says.

In 1970, five years after his sister was given triple talaq, Qadri had a chance encounter with renowned social activist Hamid Dalwai in Pune. Dalwai was a staunch opponent of triple talaq and worked towards a more egalitarian society by establishing the MSM in March 1970. 

Qadri has been working with MSM since then to help empower women abandoned by their husbands, providing them legal assistance and counselling.

The triple talaq was termed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2018, after which Parliament passed the Triple Talaq Bill in 2019. While this was a huge achievement for MSM, Qadri says the organisation continues to work towards gender equality in the Muslim community.

Besides this, Qadri also wishes to normalise the practice of adoption among Muslims. “I told my wife that if we are to have a child, it will be through adoption,” says Qadri, who has an adopted son.

‘Govt should listen to women sitting in Shaheen Bagh’ 

While Qadri supports the Modi government on its stance on triple talaq and UCC, he opposes the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

“Muslims are a part of this nation, we live for this country and will die for it. There is no reason why Muslims should be targeted like this,” Qadri says.

He says the government should have a dialogue with the women protesters at Shaheen Bagh, and that BJP leaders should not target them.

“These are our mothers and sisters sitting at Shaheen Bagh, and across the country. They shouldn’t be targeted. The government must engage in a discussion with them,” he said.

Qadri believes Indian Muslims shouldn’t be held accountable for Partition, and they “shouldn’t have to pay for the sins of the past”.

source: http://www.theprint.in / The Print / Home> India / by Fatima Khan / January 28th, 2020