Articles by A Suneetha

This paper discusses the model nikahnama or equitable marriage contract and the ensuing debate around it. Created to bring about uniformity in procedures for Muslim marriages, the aim of the model nikahnama is to address the issue of Muslim women's entitlement within marriage, minimise disputes and facilitate their settlement. The paper locates a detailed exploration of the nikahnama initiative within the broader and historically shifting context of the debate on Muslim marriage laws.

An examination of Muslim women's activism related to family dispute resolution, education and community work in Hyderabad suggests that establishing oneself as a Muslim woman activist requires one to be knowledgeable, tenacious and demonstrably committed to building the community. Based on a series of interviews and discussions with Muslim women working in different institutional set-ups over a period of two years, this study argues that we should pay more attention to their subjectivity, i e, ways in which they inhabit, attempt and change established social practices in the given conditions rather than on the oppositions or challenges to the "religion" and "state" or "feminism" that such activisms pose. Taking a close look at the activist trajectories, perspectives and work of Muslim women activists in Hyderabad, it argues that their articulation of rights and education is predicated on self-reliance which is posited as a prerequisite for the contemporary Muslim woman to inhabit the space of the Muslim community and citizenship.

Over the last two decades, the discourse on domestic violence has steadily moved into the legal/institutional domain. Originating in the debates within the women's movements on structural inequalities in the family, where women's struggles had a certain centrality, it has become a legal/governmental category. Emblematic of most feminist initiatives about women's lives in our country, this shift is beset with its own dilemmas and impasses. While naming, categorising, enumerating and measuring violence as well as efforts to make them legally recognisable are imperative to any feminist politics, they also generate their own effects. These effects, while resulting in some well-needed institutional solutions, also bring in their wake, certain conceptual rigidities. There is a need to pay attention to these effects while rethinking the familiar demands in the arena of domestic violence: foolproof laws, sensitive institutions and better awareness among women.