Violence against women
In an effort to stem increasing abuses against girls and women, including dowry deaths, sexual assault and acid attacks, parliament in August passed the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Bill (2005), which legislates for comprehensive protection of women from all forms of domestic violence.
Traditional preference for boys has led to thousands of female foetuses being aborted despite the prohibition of pre-natal sex determination for this purpose. In May the Health Minister stated that there had not been a single conviction for breaking the ban since it was introduced eight years earlier.
Many of the abuses suffered by Muslim women in Gujarat in 2002 fell outside the definition of rape in national law, thereby hampering victims' quest for justice.
The Supreme Court in October objected to a 2003 order of the Madhya Pradesh High Court reducing a 10-year sentence for rape to nine months' imprisonment. It held that an inadequate punishment for rape was an "affront to society".
The personal law of specific communities became a political issue after the All India Muslim Personal Law Board confirmed Muslim clerics' fatwa concerning the marriage of Imrana Ilahi. Imrana Ilahi alleged rape by her father-in-law in June in Muzzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh; the Board subsequently annulled her marriage and pressed for her rape allegation to be re-framed as a charge of adultery. Imrana Ilahi and her husband defied the directive but the local village council continued to put pressure on them to withdraw their charge of rape.
A petition seeking to prevent the establishment of a parallel Muslim judicial system and binding fatwas issued by Muslim clerics or organizations was pending in the Supreme Court at the end of the year.
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Gujarat
Survivors of targeted killings and sexual violence in 2002, some of which had amounted to crimes against humanity, continued to be denied justice and reparations. Key cases relating to these killings and sexual assaults of Muslim women in which complainants had sought transfers to courts outside the state, were still pending in the Supreme Court at the end of the year. In December a mass grave containing the remains of Muslim victims was found
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