Muslim Women’s Rights Day is a deception: Owaisi

‘If you want to make a law, make one against desertion of women’

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen President Asaduddin Owaisi exuded confidence in making headway in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly polls even as he criticised Muslim Women’s Rights Day celebrations on August 1 as ‘betrayal’ and ‘deception’.

The Muslim Women’s Rights Day corresponds to the day Parliament passed The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill and it became an Act. It is popularly known as the triple talaq law.

Criticising the celebrations as ‘optics’, Mr Owaisi told mediapersons, “Crores of Muslim women have signed documents against this bill, and said they reject it. The burden of proof is on women. In this country, if you want to make a law, I say that the Modi government should make one against desertion of women”.

The Hyderabad MP questioned why only Muslim Women Rights Day was being celebrated and whether women from the Hindu, Dalit and OBC communities have been empowered. He also underscored the low literacy rate among Muslim women and said issuing scholarships to those belonging to the community should be demand-driven.

Mr Owaisi also spoke about the struggle for justice of women such as Fatima Nafees, mother of Jawaharlal Nehru University student Najeeb Ahmed, who went missing in 2016.

Fielding questions on the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, Mr Owaisi said the Bharatiya Janata Party is ‘not in good shape’ in that State. He alleged that the party had mishandled the second COVID-19 wave, and added that there was rampant unemployment there.

“This time, we are with Om Prakash Rajbhar’s alliance. Our party president (in Uttar Pradesh) Shaukat and Asim Waqar have strengthened, and continue to strengthen the organisation. We are certain that this time the people of Uttar Pradesh, through their prayers and blessings, will vote for our candidates and make them successful,” he said.