India is home to thousands of organizations working for the rights of women.  However, Shaheen Women's Resource and Welfare Center exists in a unique space, at the intersection of the empowerment of women and religious coexistence.  Shaheen empowers Muslim and Hindu women to fight domestic abuse, trafficking, and exploitation - and in doing so, bridges an inter-cultural gap blown open during the '92 riots which has not yet healed.
With a multi-faceted career in both China and the US, Alice Chou has experience bridging cultural gaps as well.  One of her many initiatives, the L2 Foundation, seeks to develop the leadership and legacy of Asian Americans by providing support and resources.  She and her family also established Junior Achievement China, teaching a culture of leadership, entrepreneurship, and creativity to over a million students since 2001. 

In the wake of Babri Masjid

Our driver took us into the busy Old City area in Hyderabad where the beautiful monument Charminar has been standing for some 400 years to tell of the history and the glory of this city.  Passing by the Charminar, it felt like crossing a sea of a million people--pedestrians weaving through traffic; shoppers haggling over their buys; hawkers, food vendors and shop-keepers going about their businesses amidst hundreds of cars, auto rickshaws and motorcycles in nonstop traffic, noise and dust filled air. This extremely congested area has a high concentration of Muslims and a mix of Hindus. It has been prone to tension and communal riots over the last several decades, the worst of which occurred in 1992 after the Babri Masjid (Mosque) was torn down during a political rally in Ayodhya.  Over two thousand people were killed across the country in the riots that followed, including in Hyderabad’s Old City.

Jameela, a Muslim woman and a poet, was deeply affected by the events of 1992, which destroyed any previous relationships between the Muslims and Hindus. She noticed that women from the two populations did not even make eye contact anymore.  And within her own community, Jameela was disturbed by incidents where Muslim women were publically denounced when they tried to claim their rights in the face of injustice.

There was a resoluteness in Jameela’s soft spoken voice as she shared her realization that being a poet was not enough. She wanted to devote her life to giving a space and voice to marginalized women through poetry and social action.

Shaheen– empowering all women

In 2002, Jameela, with a few of her Muslim women friends, started Shaheen (named after a high flying bird), a women’s center. They believed that Muslim and Hindu women could work together towards the goal of individual empowerment. Shaheen works primarily with women from both religions who have suffered domestic violence, forced marriages or sexual trafficking to help them gain dignity and become self-reliant.

We stopped in front of a house with a big sign written in front: Shaheen Women Resource and Welfare Association. As we walked into the charming small courtyard, we were greeted warmly by smiling faces of women who took us up a flight of stairs onto a spacious flat roof. We all sat on pillows on the floor under a large canopy enjoying the gentle breeze. Women of all ages began to gather and sat down around us. Surrounded by the beautiful faces of these women, in the quietness of the afternoon shade, the place felt like a sanctuary. 

Fighting for victims of exploitation

Indeed, Shaheen is a sanctuary for about 150 victimized and exploited women. These women are encouraged to come together and talk about their lives, which are often overshadowed by violence and oppression. The center also provides shelter, training and jobs to the women and raises awareness within the community on women’s issues. Field workers, most of whom are recovered victims of some kind of abuse, have made a thousand house visits where they uncovered incidents of domestic abuse in a third of these households.  They also discovered that girls as young as twelve from families in extreme poverty were sold into sex trade for as little as 1000-3000 rupees (equivalent to US$ 20-60). Other women were often lured into prostitution under the guise of offers for jobs at beauty parlors. They were then trafficked all over India and the Middle East. Trafficking and human slavery is a global industry estimated to gross an excess of US$ 32 billion annually. Shaheen has found that clients are men ranging from 45 to 90 years old who are exploiting women through prostitution under the religious hypocrisy of a one-night “marriage.”

In the past 8 years, Shaheen has been able to gain media and grassroot support, including the silent support of many men within the community. Shaheen workers continue to stand against a corrupt justice system and to work to remove the stigma and fear injected into trafficked women. They are searching for senior officials to serve as their advocates and hope to expand their service to the villages. As I sat and listened to the aspirations of these brave women in Shaheen’s care, I was deeply touched and inspired by their courage and resiliency.  I admired the determination, fearlessness and compassion of Jameela, her friends and the field workers of Shaheen who have given their lives to empowering marginalized women.

Questions/Thoughts from my visit to India's social enterprises:

•    Is there merit for a conventional for-profit model in effecting change or are we proposing that all enterprises should inherently possess a socially beneficial component because it’s a more superior model for change?

•    Social enterprises although addressing a social problem or empowering a marginalized sector, can sometimes come across as more of a transactional business relationship rather than a caring, giving one compared to the non-profit model? Could this diminish or downplay the ideal/value of philanthropy and compassion?

•    Most of the social enterprises we visited either work predominantly with women or had women in leadership. Is this an accurate representation of the social market sector? What is the message this sector is sending? Are men being left behind? How are they contributing to the problems women are facing? Is addressing the issues concerning men encouraged or discouraged?

•    Change takes time. It comes in minuscule steps and systemic change sometimes may not occur until generations later.  And, some social issues are not “attractive” such as helping mentally ill people whom society discarded as burden or unproductive, or working for woman’s right against a certain religious sect/ teaching. How can these factors be added or taken into consideration when organizations think about how to allocate funding?