Challenging the Law in India with Flavia Agnes: Women’s Struggle for Equality Post-Gujarat
Posting Date: 11 May 04
Author(s): Alison McCuaig, SAP Secretariat

Report Background:
Ms. Agnes is a lawyer of the Bombay High Court and founder of Majlis, a legal and cultural resource centre in Mumbai, India. She has participated for more than 20 years in the Indian women’s movement and was inspired to become a lawyer in the context of defending her own rights as a battered woman in the Indian court system. She appeared before the Sri Krishna Commission inquiry into the 1992 riots in the Indian cities of Mumbai and Berhampada to raise issues of minority rights and gender equality in the context of such emergencies. In 1999, Oxford University Press published her book, Law and Gender Inequality: the Politics of Women’s Rights in India. Ms. Agnes is one of many voices in the women’s movement of India. She and several other professional women founded Majlis in 1990 to address issues of pluralism, minority identity, and the cultural context of minorities within larger movements.

Ms. Agnes spoke about the origins of the modern women’s movement in India, dowry deaths as domestic violence, her critique of the movement’s demand for a uniform civil code, and the response of the movement to the Mumbai and Gujarat riots. She then answered questions from the participants.

To read the full report, download the Rich Text Format (RTF) attachment below.

Attached file: Flavia Agnes Alison McCuaig final report.rtf