Will a Muslim Woman ever rise to become the PM of India?

♦ Men graduate from GHMC to the state assembly in AIMIM

♦ Women's growth in the party was limited to becoming only GHMC corporators

♦ Questions raised by the party reflecting the generational changes taking place in its electoral bastions

Hyderabad: The AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owasi had recently questioned the centre as to why OBC and Muslim woman who have even lesser representation in Parliament are not being given any quota. Now women of old city are raising the same question why AIMIM does not field women candidates?

According to the election commission data, the difference between the male and female voters under the Majlis bastions of Chandrayangutta, Bahadurpura, Karwan, Charminar, Yakutpura, Malakpet and Nampally differ by a couple of thousands of votes. But the maximum encouragement women got from AIMIM was to become corporators nothing more than that.

All other parties like Congress, BJP and BRS which had always demanded 33 percent reservation had failed to implement it during the present elections despite Act coming into force, had at least made some amends to their profiling of candidates and fielded some women. They have been giving tickets to women candidates for long.

Talking to the Hans India, the younger generation from among the Muslim voters rue that AIMIM fails to reflect the generational change among its voters and their aspirations.

Yusuf (name changed), a postgraduate who left his cushy corporate job and is running an institution in the Old City, said, a good number of parents come to the school and try to find out why their daughters were lagging behind boys in terms of marks and performance. This is also the situation in junior colleges and degree colleges, he said.

Of late women from the Muslim community have been coming up with flying colours and are becoming doctors, engineers, IT and legal professionals and are even going abroad. But the AIMIM was not allowing women to grow beyond the level of corporators. On the contrary male corporators become Deputy Mayors, MLAs and MLCs points out Altaf (name changed), a GHMC employee. He further points out the after formation of separate state, there is no alternative to this party to challenge them in the state and there is no one to question them.

But the question is are the Muslim women ready to contest?

Sabina (name changed), a school teacher who claims her political ideas are a bit tilted towards the left, recalls the Majlis chief's statement about his dream. She said Sadar Saheb had once said that he was sure that “a hijab-wearing Muslim woman will become the Prime Minister of the country someday." But then when his own party does not encourage women, how can his dream be realised? She wondered.