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India Today
22-05-2025
- Politics
- India Today
How IUML broke the glass ceiling with key national appointments
The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) appointing two women, one of them a non-Muslim, into its national leadership is a watershed moment in the party's 77-year-long leader Jayanthi Rajan, from Kerala, and Fathima Muzaffer, the Egmore ward councillor in the Greater Chennai Corporation, bring with them rich public service experience that they will now invest in the party in their capacity as national assistant secretaries in the national two appointments should somewhat help break the IUML's image of being a male-centric entity. Dr N.P. Hafiz Muhammed, social scientist and a popular Malayalam writer, welcomed it, telling INDIA TODAY: 'It's a strategic move to project the party as more secular, democratic and women-friendly. The IUML can't afford to remain isolated as a male-dominated political entity in a world where women are making themselves heard. The party will need to honour their views for expanding nationally.'The IUML, a major constituent of the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) in Kerala, never encouraged active participation of women in politics and treated them as silent followers. Women leaders could not share public platforms with their male counterparts or address their followers. The IUML has 15 MLAs in the 140-member Kerala legislative assembly and secured 8.2 per cent of the popular vote in the 2021 polls. For the past decade, the party has been facing strong challenges from Islamic radical groups and the CPI(M)-led Left liberals. So the support of women voters and leaders could count much in its political 46, hails from Poothadi in Wayanad and won local body polls for her party in 2010. She had joined the party's women's wing and was appointed as a member of its Wayanad district committee. Later, she was nominated to the state committee of the Dalit League, the tribal wing of the party, and won panchayat polls in 2015.'I've been in public service for more than 20 years. I'm grateful to the leadership for offering me an opportunity to serve the party and the people,' Jayanthi said in a conversation with INDIA IUML faced several issues, including resistance from Muslim clerics, whenever it tried to promote women leaders. With 50 per cent of the seats reserved for women in the local body polls in 2010, the leadership was forced to put women in the fray. Now, many panchayats and municipalities have Muslim women as year, the IUML had for the first time inducted women into the state leadership of the Youth League, the party's youth wing. In the 2021 assembly elections, for the first time in 25 years, the party had fielded advocate Noorbeena Rasheed from the Kozhikode South constituency. Rasheed lost by over 12,000 IUML leadership has realised that without women leaders, they can't reach out to their women cadre. Muslim women are better informed now. They don't follow politics or leaders blindly,' said K.C. Rehna, a political commentator in decision to appoint two women as national assistant secretaries could encourage more women leaders to demand better space and recognition in politics, at least in Kerala and Tamil Nadu where the party has a sizeable following among to India Today Magazine
Indian Express
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
IUML opens doors to women in national leadership. Why Jayanthi Rajan breaks many ceilings
For the first time in its history, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) has inducted women into its national leadership, including a non-Muslim face. Jayanthi Rajan, a Dalit leader from Kerala, and Fathima Muzaffer from Tamil Nadu, both members of the IUML women's wing, were chosen by the party Thursday to become national assistant secretaries in its national council. Their names were announced at a meeting in Chennai, which also saw the IUML elect a national president and other office-bearers. The induction of the two women faces is expected to help the IUML shed its image of a 'male-dominated party'. An ally of the Congress, the IUML has often wrestled with juggling between the growing demand for better women's representation in the party and the conservatism advocated by Muslim clerics. In 2021, Haritha, the women's wing of the IUML's Muslim Students Federation (MSF), had held protests over gender-related issues within the party. After this, the IUML had set up a 20% representation benchmark for women in all its affiliated groups. Last year, the IUML inducted women into the state leadership of the Youth League, the party's youth wing, for the first time. The 46-year-old Rajan, who hails from Wayanad and belongs to a family of 'Congress supporters', began her journey with the IUML in the 2010 local body elections, which were the first after 50% seats in these bodies were reserved for women. The IUML looked for eligible women beyond the Muslim community to field, and this led them to Rajan for a ward under the Poothadi panchayat in Wayanad. Rajan by then was already active in social work. Rajan told The Indian Express: 'In 2004, I began my career with a Church-run NGO, which was involved in women's empowerment through micro-financing and self-help groups. The IUML was also involved in a lot of charitable works in the area and that helped me find beneficiaries… Their involvement in charity and social causes influenced me.' Rajan won the local body elections as an IUML representative, and simultaneously joined the party's Women's League, going on to become a member of its Wayanad district committee. She was later nominated to the state committee of the Dalit League, which is a wing within the IUML. In 2015, she contested elections to the block panchayat and won. 'For the last nine years, I have been in the national committee of the Women's League. I have never felt odd in the party. The leadership of the IUML or Women's League has never approached me as a non-Muslim person,' she said, adding that things had changed since. 'When I joined the Women's League, there were very few Muslim women in the IUML or its affiliated outfits. Now, we have several educated women in the party.' On conservative clergy and their objections to women in public places, Rajan said, 'I am only part of the IUML, I need not comment on what the clerics say. In fact, I have shared the dais with clerics too.' While the reservation of 50% seats for women in local bodies may have led the IUML to open the doors to women candidates at this level, the party has had very few women candidates for Assembly or Lok sabha elections. In the 2021 Kerala Assembly elections, the party fielded a woman candidate, advocate Noorbeena Rasheed, from the Kozhikode South constituency, for the first time in 25 years. Rasheed, however, lost the seat to a candidate of the Indian National League.
