HYDERABAD: Parcham and Hyderabad Urban Lab launched the book ‘The Queen, The Courtesan, The Doctor, and The Writer’ on Thursday. The book was written by Parcham Founder Member Sabah Khan and illustrated by Neelima P Aryan, and the launch took place at Lamakaan. The book presents inspiring stories of 52 Indian Muslim women and men who made immense contributions in various fields, including politics, law, education, and social awareness, including the rights of women and arts and culture. The foreword was written by journalist Javed Anand.
The book tells the stories of Muslims who, with their extraordinary contributions, stand as inspirational icons for present and future generations. Some of these stories shed light on the lives of Ashfaqullah Khan, Azizun Nisa, Begums of Bhopal and many more. Each life story is complemented by a page-size illustration of the luminary on the side.
The book marks the 10th anniversary of Parcham, an organisation that empowers marginalised communities and helps them access their fundamental rights. However, the story of Parcham interestingly started with a football initiative, where young girls from Mumbra, a suburb on the outskirts of Mumbai, were given training in professional football. “If you are a Muslim living in a ghetto, you would spend your entire life without having to interact with a non-muslim. The girls, especially, remain confined within the walls of their homes and even if they go to schools, they are never able to move beyond those narrow passages. Football is a space where these barriers are broken. It being a team game, Muslim and non-Muslim girls play alongside each other,” said Sabah Khan.
While both society and media were appalled by the organisation's efforts to bring Muslim girls out on football fields, Sabah Khan said that it also helped them challenge the narrative of what activism means in Muslim space. “Usually we used to get to hear sob stories of violence, divorce, Muslim personal laws and all. But with this initiative, the focus was on questions like, ‘why am I not outside, claiming my right of being in the city, why am I not visible?’” she said.
The organisation has been training girls for the past 10 years and some of them have now become coaches and started their teams. Talking about her own experience of being in the group, Aarti Melkeri recalls how they had to fight at each step, just to be able to play. “We have to go and talk to parents to tell them that social boundaries do not overpower the dreams of their daughters. In addition to that, there have been instances where we got into physical fights with boys. Thankfully, we have the support of the local police,” said 20-year-old Aarti who started playing when she was 10 and now heads a team as a coach.
Sabah Khan also mentioned that after the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 (CAA), Muslims have been forced to ‘prove’ their identity as an Indian and are often asked whether they are Muslim or Indian first. With that, the organisation began conversations around identity and citizenship, which includes developing empathy, thought and knowledge of one’s constitutional rights and responsibilities.
The present book took shape from a collection of five eminent personalities whose life stories were published in the form of diaries and Parcham got a positive response from buyers. Telling the story of Hajrah bee, a radical feminist who divorced her husband on accounts of unmatching outlooks, went to London to have an education and then came back and married for love, Sabah said that the book is not only for non-Muslims but also for Muslims to remember their history and reclaim the contributions made by their ancestors.
“One of the many interesting things happening around the cities is the creation of small museums and archives, which people are doing instinctively, with great intensity in cities across the country. It shows that the past is now becoming available as a very complex resource. We have to start telling our stories in different ways for us to be able to live meaningfully,” concluded Anant Maringanti, director of Hyderabad Urban Lab
“It weren’t just the queens who fought for the Independence and cared for the welfare of the people, there were courtesans, too” said Sabah Khan, who launched her book ‘The Queen, The Courtesan, The Doctor, The Writer’ at Lamakaan on Thursday