Aspiration is supposed to be a good thing. Nayla Tabassum aspired to be somebody; she wanted to sit the civil services examination or get an MBA. She wanted to extend the scope of her education, culminating in a master’s degree, which she had completed in Calcutta. It seems that she wanted to put that education to specific professional uses, to earn well and be a respected member of society in her own right. A woman who desires empowerment as an individual and a useful member of society is an asset to that society. She also represents the high level of awareness, the sense of responsibility and drive for self-improvement that women’s movements struggle to create. Ms Tabassum had only her dream and a slightly mad plan of escape from what she perceived to be confining circumstances. Having spent four years married to a schoolteacher in a village in Uttar Pradesh, she slipped out of a train at a small station while travelling with her uncle to visit her parents. Although she had passed her B.Ed examinations since her marriage and had been allowed by her in-laws to teach in a school, she evidently felt that she was capable of bigger things. Also that she would not have either her parents or her in-laws on her side in this. She was caught, and “handed over” to her family by the police. Although, as she tearfully pointed out, she was much over 21, she had to be “returned” to her family because her relatives had lodged a “missing persons” diary. She went “willingly”, the police said.

What is the value of a “will” that is dictated by law and police procedure, which in turn are rooted in family demands and the conventional expectations of community and society? Ms Tabassum’s story is especially painful — and not for her alone — because it marks a defeat on two levels. One, she is a woman who has the wherewithal to compete in an unequal world, but was foiled — at least this time. And two, she is a woman from a community that has been shown to be disadvantaged in education and employment by the Sachar committee. Given the rate of higher education among Muslim girls, Ms Tabassum could have been a shining example of will, determination and success. The State’s interest lies in producing more of her kind. Yet it is the State’s law that compels her to return to the bosom of her family and limit her ambitions to the role of schoolteacher.