Jamaat-e-Islami Hind to launch nationwide campaign against sexual violence

Srinagar, Aug 27: Amid the rising cases of sexual assault against women in India, the country's largest Muslim organisation on Tuesday said that its Women's Wing is launching a month-long nation-wide campaign titled 'Morality is Freedom' in September this year.

The objective of the campaign is to raise awareness among people about the "true freedom and how it is linked to morality," said Ms Rahamathunnissa, National Secretary of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind.

Expressing regret over the increasing incidents of sexual violence and homicide targeting women and girls in the country, she said, "Social inequality, neglect of security, and discrimination against women in our society have further complicated this issue. Particularly, the cases of sexual violence against marginalized women including, Dalits, Adivasis, minorities, and disabled women are even more severe," she said.

She said, "the recent incidents such as the rape and murder of a female doctor at RG Kar Hospital in Kolkata (West Bengal), the gang rape and murder of a 14-year-old Dalit girl in Gopalpur (Bihar), the rape and brutal murder of a Muslim nurse in Udham Singh Nagar (Uttarakhand), and the sexual assault of two kindergarten girls at a school in Badlapur (Maharashtra), prove that there is a serious need to reflect on the mentality and the behaviour towards women and girls in the country."

Addressing a press conference at their headquarters in New Delhi, Rahamathunnissa said that the statistics from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) and the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) show that crimes against women are increasing year by year.

These reports, she said, "only include the cases that have been reported by media, who knows how many cases go unreported. How much struggle do women have to go through to get justice? The Bilkis Bano case, in which she was gang-raped during the 2002 Gujarat massacre, is a stark example. She fought a long and hard battle to get justice," she said.

She further said that "the mindset of violence against women has spread like an epidemic, affecting the peace and progress of the nation. The root cause of this curse is the decline of moral values under the guise of unrestricted freedom. The lack of moral values in society, viewing women as objects, sexual exploitation and abuse, vulgarity, extramarital affairs, and the growing use of alcohol and drugs, all contribute to harassment and exploitation," she asserted.

Additionally, she said, the increase in Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs), abortions, sexual violence, and rape, as well as the breakdown of the family unit and the normalization of indecency, are rapidly destroying the moral fabric of the society.

On top of this, she said, the growing influence of communal and caste-based politics, viewing certain communities and castes as inferior, and the desire to maintain dominance over them have worsened the situation. Criminals and accused individuals are often portrayed as heroes for political and material gains, when in fact, they should be condemned.

During this campaign, awareness programs will be organised at the national, state, district, and regional levels in collaboration with educators, counsellors, lawyers, religious scholars, and community leaders, the handout from the organisation said.

It said that special programs will be conducted on campuses to introduce students and youth to true freedom and moral values.

To bring common moral values into public discourse, special programs will be organized by involving scholars from different religions, read the handout.