Owaisi wants Muslim women to have a reservation

Patna: Citing the inadequate presence of female members of religious minorities in the House of Parliament, AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi has called for a quota for Muslim women.

He made the request on Sunday while speaking at an election rally in Kishanganj, the only Lok Sabha seat in Bihar with a majority of Muslims. Akhtarul Iman, the party’s MLA and the state head of the AIMIM, is running for office.

The AIMIM is wrongly accused by the BJP-RSS of opposing women’s involvement in politics. We had filed a female candidate in Secunderabad as early as 2004. Regarding the late leader Humera Aziz, Owaisi said, “Peace be upon her.”

“We are concerned that, despite the fact that the nation has had 17 Lok Sabha elections since Independence, just around 20 Muslim women have been elected to parliament. So why don’t Muslim women get reservations? In his speech on Sunday, Owaisi said, “The AIMIM seeks quotas for Muslim women.”

The MP from Hyderabad went on to describe the derision he encountered when he proposed an amendment in the Lok Sabha to the “Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam” introduced by the Narendra Modi government. “Speaker Om Birla informed me that although you want to propose an amendment, very few people are in support of you. The Owaisi recalled the events in the Lok Sabha and said, “Allah is with me.”

On Monday, the AIMIM shared on social media a video of Owaisi’s speech at the Kishanganj election meeting, with the pertinent parts of the Lok Sabha proceedings removed.

“My main contention is that Muslims and the backward classes together comprise about 65% of the total population,” states Owaisi in the video. We cannot deny the rights of this large part of society to women.

Asaduddin Owaisi emphasises the BJP’s focus on’marginalised’ populations while criticising the party for allegedly overlooking minorities in its agenda. Concerns about unemployment, high school dropout rates, and constitutional dangers are highlighted by Owaisi, who asks voters to take them into account before casting their ballots.

The seven-phase elections for Kishanganj, a Bihar Lok Sabha constituency, are scheduled to begin on April 26. Mahagathbandhan’s only victory in 2019 came with important candidates from the Congress and JD (U). June 4 is the date of the vote count.

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