STUNNED? A delegate of the National Federation of Indian Women's conference beside a poster depicting harassment of women in the city on Thursday. --PHOTO: P.V.SIVAKUMAR

HYDERABAD: The National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW) has asked the Government to impose a ban on the issuance of fatwas by Muslim clerics and anti-women verdicts by caste panchayats in the country, particularly in the Hindi heartland.

The XVIIth National conference of the NFIW here expressed serious concern over such incidents. NFIW secretary Gargi Chakravarty, at a press conference on Thursday, said that scores of women and girls of all communities and castes were being humiliated and brutally punished for no fault of theirs.

`No legal status'

Girls marrying boys of other caste or community enraged the caste panchayats, which punished such couples with death penalty. In case of an erring boy, his mother or sister, had been stripped and paraded and in some cases raped, she alleged.

These panchayats have no legal status but try to sanctify their inhuman and anti-women decisions through fatwas and other religious edicts. False notion and caste pride was being brandished to make such decisions credible, she charged.

She said apart from the growing religious revivalism, an important factor pave the way for this mushrooming growth of panchayats was undue delay in the judicial process.

Poor people preferred these `unauthorised' panchayats in search of an urgent and speedy resolution of family disputes, she said.

Inaction alleged

Ms. Chakravarty charged the law-enforcement agencies with not taking action against these atrocities as they themselves had religious and caste bias.

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