Noted theatre and broadcast personality Rama Pandey has come up with a book titled “Begum, Bano aur Khatoon”. The book deals with the lives of under-privileged Muslim women and contains the real life stories of women who wash utensils for a living, teach at primary schools or are housewives. The common thing is they all have mustered the courage and determination to lead respectable lives and achieve their dreams, sometimes resulting in unconventional journeys. The unveiling took place at the Taj Ambassader Hotel, New Delhi and was attended by many renowned personalities including poet and lyricist, Javed Akhtar and filmmaker Muzaffar Ali. “Through this book, I have raised an issue that is widespread in our society. Indian Muslim women are not often given the opportunity to prove their real worth,” said Pandey, who has written the book in Hindi as well as Urdu.
However Javed Akhtar insisted that one should not generalise. “A large percentage of slum-dwellers are Muslim and standing up for their rights is important, but that does not mean that the entire community of Muslim women is suffering. The root problem lies in bad education and it is not that the entire community is affected but it is a certain socio-economic sub-division where women are not treated well,” he asserted. Reflecting from his own experience, he said, “Till the age of 20, of all the households I had seen, I had never even known of any mistreatment being meted out to women. Among educated Muslims, hitting women is seen to be the least. The husband does not even address the wife with a ‘tu', he uses ‘tum' or ‘aap'.”
Muzaffar Ali praised Pandey for the cause she has highlighted, and said, “I personally feel a lot of sympathy for the weak and the oppressed. An artist who sells his art for the sake of selling is not an artist. One must have pain, sympathy and feelings, and Rama is one such author.”
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