Maimun Case

Raped 1997

It was love that brought the 18-year-old Maimun and the already-married Idris Mohammed together. But what kept them apart wasn't Idris' marital status or their caste but the fact that by virtue of living in the same village Sudaka in Haryana's Nuh tehsil they were gotra bhai-behen.

Same-gotra marriages are not allowed among Hindus but this is a custom that even converts to Islam cling to.

Despite the fact that the entire village frowned on their union, the couple got married at Nizammuddin's dargah in Delhi on June 8, 1997. But her family refused to accept it and married Maimun off to another man in a hurry. On the wedding night, she was gangraped by the new husband, his brother and two friends.

Then they slit Maimun, from neck to stomach, as punishment for her marriage to Idris, and left her for dead. Maimun was rescued by another villager and, while being treated for her injuries in hospital, was reunited with Idris.

The couple approached National Commission for Women (NCW) in New Delhi after hearing that Idris' old parents were being punished for Maimun's disappearance. Syeda Hameed, member of the Planning Commission, and former NCW member, has profiled Maimun's story in her book They Hang: Twelve Women in My Portrait Gallery.

She recalls in the book, "Surprisingly, they were not complaining about the beating and torture inflicted on them by their biradari...It did not strike me till much later that women accept violence as part of their daily lives simply by virtue of being female..."

On August 14, 1997, while the country prepared for its golden jubilee Independence Day celebrations, an NCW team went to Sudaka, along with Maimun, Idris and some Haryana policemen. The couple hid in the vehicle, while the NCW team tried to persuade the villagers to accept their marriage.

Padma Seth, lawyer and then NCW member, recalls, "Suddenly, thousands of people poured in from nearby villages. They broke open the door of the vehicles and forcefully dragged out Maimun like a piece of meat." The policemen refused to go to her rescue, saying they had to consider the team's security as there were

people armed with knives waiting near the village's exit. Maimun was later found after NCW told the Gurgaon deputy commissioner that it would otherwise file a habeas corpus writ. Says Seth, "It was said that she was raped by the village pradhan after she was taken away." With the help of a court directive, Maimun was first sent to a

Nari Niketan near Karnal, and later reunited with Idris.

Hameed says, "We heard reports that Idris had gone to the Gulf for a while and then opened a shop in east Delhi. Then one day, I saw a familiar face in a newspaper Idris with his two children. That's when I came to know that Maimun had been killed by her brother." It was July 29, 2003 six years after her marriage to Idris that Maimun's brother killed her to save the family honour. Idris and his two children went into hiding; no one knows where they are now.

Seth says, "Men are still treating girls as property they can dispose of. Women are being sold for paltry sums like Rs 10,000 and Rs 12,000. Maimun told us her parents had sold her for Rs 14,000. Also, Muslim converts are hanging on to Hindu customs like gotra and other superstitious beliefs."

Sayeed regrets, "When Maimun was pulled away from us in Sudaka, I felt that despite 50 years of our Independence, there were pockets of ignorance, trapped in a time warp. When she was killed, I realised that no matter what, woh mahilaon ko kabhi bakshte nahin hain (they never spare women)."

Maimun learnt that the hard way.

ref: TOI