Muslim Widows: Voiceless Stories of Invisible Women in India

The academic paper attempts to explore and expose the constant forces that mold the Indian Muslim widows into weaker, voiceless shadows. A need of pragmatic shift in our perception towards the Muslim Widows of India is heightened by the witness of conspicuous absence of scholarly writings concerning this. Moreover, there is a lamentable lack of reliable data concerning the Widows of India in general and that of Muslim widows in specific as well. Most of them are conducted by NGOs who often fail to include widows in context of wars, pandemics, farmer’s suicide etc. This paper deconstructs and displays the subjugation by hegemonic forces and oppressive patriarchal politics that leads to their ghettoization, oppression, and exploitation. The paper enquires and examines the social rituals especially that of Muslim culture which exacerbates the lamentable condition of its women. It exposes the grief of widowhood wherein the loss of husband intensified by financial problems, social exclusion, debts and loan taken by husband, torture by in laws, humiliation, religious obligations, is captured. Lack of education and income to sustain their lives leads them to streets for begging and into prostitution. This paper is based on interviews by different caste and economic class of Muslim widows. Their struggle is translated in words which exposes the vices of power structure politics, social exclusion in an organic manner.