An antidote to intolerance

Tiryaaq', a 34-minute film is a graphic depiction of the lives of Muslim women in India's most populated state- Uttar Pradesh. It has lessons for all of us who want inclusive development for the nation to prosper

Lamakaan screened a 34-minute film ‘Tiryaaq’ on Thursday evening to a select audience. Helmed by Hasina Khan, a Mumbai-based veteran human rights activist, in association with Radhika Desai of TIFR, it is a blunt, no-frills kind of a venture which takes a very uncomfortable close-up of lives of Muslim women across seven districts of Uttar Pradesh.

Conceptualised over three years and shot in a period of under three months, Tiryaaq, which means antidote in Urdu justifies its title, capturing visually, the realities of modern Indian society, plagued with visible and invisible barriers when it comes to uplifting the Muslim community. Khan confesses that she is no film maker and that she accidentally ventured into it, and once having got into it, found it enamouring.

Ideologically leftist, but only just, it raises all those questions which polite society would find politically incorrect in day-to-day situations. After having been screened during the successful two - day meeting of 500 Muslim women in Delhi who had assembled for a seminar titled ‘ Sadak se Sansad tak: Mussalman auraton ki aawaz’ between Feb 27-28, Hasina Khan was in town to screen it for the local audience and raise funds for the cause. As she informed the members in the hall, the film which was screened, too was a crowd-funded venture.

Using the audio-visual medium to challenge established patriarchal norms and create a nuanced existence for women, especially Muslim women is easier said than done in today’s India. Buffeted by unyielding, fundamentalist powers-that-be on either sides, both from the one that they belong to and the majoritarian other, the challenges are manifold beyond doubt.

With India’s communal temperature seen as ‘intolerant ‘and brazenly one-sided, which means afflicted with the’ you are with us or against us’ syndrome, it takes a lot of commitment and an unyielding dedication for the cause to keep the work going, despite many kinds of odds.

The women in the film, from deprived and oppressive familial environments are shown facing traditional obstructions when they want to study, pursue a career or hobby. What sets them apart is the enabling environment that comes their way after a sustained, selfless work by women of their own community, who confront the brutal attacks and still live life, attempting to actualise what they want to.

The audience was obviously curious to know how the filmed women took it when they saw themselves saying all that they managed to. In fact, the film takes an unapologetic view of the rise of the Islamic clergy and how it killed moderate, reasonable opinion, juxtaposing it with the current NDA government which fails to acknowledge the very existence of the country’s largest minority community. In all, a thought-provoking, courageous venture one should admit.