Women at the poster exhibition organised by Al- Khair Charitable Trust at Art and Craft College in Patna on Saturday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, Dec. 4: A two-day poster exhibition on “Muslim women rights and reality”, was organised today by Patna-based Al-Khair Charitable Trust in collaboration with some other NGOs including Koshish, IPTA and Mahila Jagran Kendra.

Hindi journalist Nasiruddin Haider Khan highlighted various aspects of the issue through his pictures accompanied with word descriptions.

About 43 pictures put up in the exhibition bear the message. Khan said: “Despite being the same as their counterparts in other communities, Muslim girls and women are different. The main reason is their distinct religious identity. Islam took revolutionary steps for women’s rights 1400 years ago but the Muslim society maintain values, which deny them the rights. They continue to be neglected and ignored.” Giving details about the objective of the exhibition, he said: “Islam has given same rights to its men and women. Despite having this mentioned in the Quran, the Muslim women are not given the equal opportunities. The idea behind putting up the exhibition is to make people aware about the fundamental rights given to them by Hadith and Quran. All the pictures and message have been referred by Quran only.” Al-Khair’s trustee, Najeebul Haque said: “There is no question in Islam of men and women being engaged in some kind of historical struggle for power. Rather, the roles of both are complementary and essential. We need to understand it from a broader perspective. There are many myths and misconceptions, which need to be cleared before it takes an ugly form.”

He added: “Prophet Mohammad was an extremely successful social reformer as well as spiritual and a political leader who championed the rights of the weak and oppressed. The Quranic verses referring to women had the effect of vastly improving the status and the rights of women.” The president of Mahila Jagran Kendra, Nilu told The Telegraph: “For Muslim women in this country, this could be the beginning of a change. A change towards a life without the fear of divorce. A change away from ignorance and ignominy.”

Stating that Muslim women do not often press for their rights, Nitu said: “Unless Muslim women demand for their legitimate rights, they are bound to suffer. The crux of the problem is that women themselves do not demand their rights and male ego would not allow it to concede these demands. Women should understand that they have to fight their own battle.”

The secretary of Koshish, Rupesh Kumar said: “All these issues remain unaddressed, primarily because women are not so socially active. Without elevating the status of women the upgrade of the Muslim community as a whole cannot be achieved. No social reform movement can be successful without the participation of women. The first step in this direction would be to educate women.”

IPTA Patna secretary Tanwir Akhtar said: “Issues like right to education, right to choice in marriage, right to live regarding aborting girl child, which leads to gender gap, should be given special emphasis.” The exhibition will be open for the public from 11am to 6pm at Patna Arts and Craft College, located behind the Patna Museum.