Muslim Rashtriya Manch (MRM), a forum related to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Parivar, has said it will run awareness campaigns across the country in support of raising the minimum marriage age of Muslim women.
The Union government has introduced the “Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill, 2021” in the winter session of Parliament last year. The Bill seeks to increase the age of marriage of women from 18 years to 21 years. The Bill has been sent to the Parliamentary standing committee for examination.
Mohammed Afzal, the national convener of MRM said his team will visit all the districts of Uttar Pradesh to raise awareness on raising the Muslim women’s minimum marriage age. He also said that the Muslim community should be made aware of the ill effects of various issues plaguing the community. These are triple talaq, halala, polygamy, hijab, the marriage of girls attaining puberty, etc.
The Manch has called for a nationwide discussion on these issues. The discussions will be held with the cross-section of the Muslim community. “Various cells of the Manch will prepare a plan of reforms by taking together different sections of the society and will implement them in a sequential manner across the country,” he added.
The MRM is a Muslim organisation that’s inspired by RSS ideology. It was formed in 2002 in the presence of the then RSS chief K.S. Sudarshan with the stated aim of bringing Muslim communities close to Hindus in India. MRM has 1over 0,000 volunteers and its website is www.muslimrashtriyamanch.org.
The MRM has also expressed support for many of the causes espoused by the RSS, including the banning of cow slaughter. It also supported the singing of ‘Vande Mataram’.
“Our Muslim brothers should understand that Vande Mataram is the national song and every Indian citizen should respect and recite it,” said Afzal adding that those Muslims who refuse to sing it are opponents of both Islam and India.
In August 2008, MRM organised a Paigham-e-Aman (message of peace) yatra from the Red Fort in Delhi to Kashmir in support of land allocation for the Amarnath pilgrimage.
In November 2009, the MRM organised a Tiranga yatra (march in honor of the national flag) leading to the Gateway of India in Mumbai, protesting against terrorism. One thousand volunteers took a pledge against terror and vowed to campaign against it in their home districts.
In September 2012, the MRM organised a signature campaign to revoke Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, which granted limited autonomy to the state of Jammu and Kashmir, and claimed to have collected 7,00,000 signatures.
