NEW DELHI: Indian women are livid after reports that a Uttar Pradesh village has banned “love marriages” in favor of allowing only arranged marriages by parents. The reports have shocked the country, with many women telling Bikyamasr.com that it is yet another example of men taking power over women. “I can't believe it really,” began Shaima Ahmad, a Delhi-based wedding planner. “For me, it hits close to home because of my business. Most of my clients are love marriages and I couldn't imagine them being forced to marry their parent's choices.” For Ahmad, 27, and happily married with two children, she deplores forcing people into arranged marriages. “I understand India's history and our culture of arranged marriages, but in today's world, as India changes and people are falling in love more often, it is outrageous that this would happen,” she said in reference to the village of Asara banning love. Making matters worse still for women in the village, if they are under 40-years-old they have been barred from going outside unaccompanied. In a slew of draconian measures, the village council or “panchayat” also barred women from using mobile phones and insisted they cover their heads in public, in what has been described in local media as the “Talibanisation” of rural India. A council member, Sattar Ahmed, said “love marriages” were damaging and a “shame on society.” Other women told Bikyamasr.com that they understand what the village is doing, but “it goes way too far.” Rohina Appai, a Mumbai housewife and in an arranged marriage, said that “the village is attempting to create a more harmonious idea, but they are doing so in the wrong way, which will only create tension and anger.” For her, married when she was 15-years-old, the idea of love is an almost foreign concept. Married for 13 years now, with four children, she believes women need to be given the choice she never had. “I like my husband and we get along just fine, but in many ways I would have liked to have tried to fall in love with him. I was too young and then we started having children, so it was not easy to fall in love,” she said. “At the same time, women in India should not be pushed into what elder men want. I hate it. It is not right and we all have to battle for the freedom to choose,” she added. India's Home Minister P Chidambaram condemned the village's orders, saying they had “no place” in a democratic society. “Police must act against anyone issuing such diktats. If anyone takes action against any young man or woman based on illegal village courts, then they must be arrested,” Chidambaram said at a press conference. Leaders of the panchayat justified the new rules by stating they were intended to safeguard women from “bad elements” in society. “It is very painful for the parents, especially the girl's family, because such marriages dent their respectability,” said Sattar Ahmed. The measures were swiftly condemned by women's rights groups. Sudha Sunder Raman, the general secretary of the All India Democratic Women's Association said: “This notion that women up to the age of 40 need protection and need to be controlled is extremely chauvinistic and undermines all basic norms.” The head of the National Commission for Women, Mamta Sharma, said the council rulings were “laughable” and unenforceable. “Panchayats do not enjoy constitutional powers. And if there are no powers, there is no need to follow the orders,” she said. For women in India, who continue to face a rise in sexual violence, it highlights the growing need, activists said, in pushing for grassroots initiatives to make women aware of their rights.
