When these Muslim women battled abusive in-laws and painful divorces, they decided to adjust the shutter speed on their cameras to find a brighter picture of life
When these Muslim women battled abusive in-laws and painful divorces, they decided to adjust the shutter speed on their cameras to find a brighter picture of life
Two years ago, Shabina Shaik's only reaction to seeing a camera was to break into a shy smile when she posed for a picture. When we meet her on Wednesday at the Kurla office of NGO Awaaz-e-Niswaan, she is sitting around other women, discussing shots from her last photography assignment; comparing notes on clarity, and soft lighting.u00a0u00a0
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Reshma Pawaskar, Shabina Shaik, Paigambari Ansari pose for Sahar
Ansari as her daughter looks on. Pic/Anuja Gupta
Awaaz-e-Niswaan, a feminist collective of academics and activists working for the empowerment of Muslim women, has three large rooms here, all busy with voices competing to be heard. As Shaik glances through images, selecting the best shots, a four-feet wall separates her from a family counselling session and three children playing hopscotch in the corridor. 
Razia captures the work of Astha Sansthan, an NGO that works with
rural women in Rajasthan.
Shaik was 16 years old when she was married, and 18 when she was divorced. While she fought a case against her in-laws demanding a hefty dowry, she approached Awaaz-e-Niswaan for legal assistance and found a sisterhood of support. "I was a standard nine pass student, so there were a lot of things I didn't understand back then," says Shaik, who completed her education with assistance from the NGO. After attending classes in law, computers and English, she heard about a photography workshop that piqued her curiosity. 
Nahid Shaik catches the balancing act of a tribal chickoo farm labourer
in Dahanu
In July 2009, Photography Promotion Trust, a collective of creatives committed to sharing ideas and resources organised a photography workshop with 25 women from Awaaz-e-Niswaan to encourage them to capture moments around them. "The focus was not on technique but on filming how they see life around them," says Anuja Gupta, a freelance photographer who conducted the workshop along with Mexy Xavier and Ravi Shekhar. The cameras were provided by Point of View, a NGO that aims to promote the perspective of women through the creative use of media.
Paigambari Ansari frames a villager woman in the doorway of her
Rajasthan home.
Reshma Pawaskar, 30, was introduced to Awaaz-e-Niswaan after an abusive six year marriage ended, with her leaving her husband's home in Rajapur. "The beating and verbal abuse was roz ki baat (an everyday story) but my husband was having an affair with his sister-in-law. I couldn't take it an longer," she says. 
Pigambari Ansari puts together the pieces in this image where a seven
year-old makes dinner.
When she first heard about the workshop, she admits she was inhibited at learning the ropes from male photographers. "I'd never heard of a woman photographer, especially a Muslim woman," says Pawaskar, who had previously busied herself with mehendi and cooking classes. 
Saira Syed catches the social scenario at a village in UP.
Two years down, Pawaskar has a folder full of images to her name and quite a few interesting stories to tell. While shooting some images at the Gay Pride parade last month, she found herself fighting her way through a host of press cameramen, trying to snap a picture of actress Celina Jaitley who was an attendee. "I realised I wouldn't get a clear shot, so I climbed up a wall, held onto a grill with one hand and my camera in the other. Soon, the photographers turned away from Celina and started taking pictures of me," she laughs. "They hadn't seen a photographer in a burka, I guess."
Kashtakari Sangathan provides jobs to women in a balloon factory
Paigambari Ansari, 26, works as a nurse in a diagnostic centre in Bandra. She was turned out of her home after her in-laws raised concerns about inadequate dowry two months into the marriage. "When I decided to take up photography, my family wasn't keen on the idea. They calledu00a0 it a 'new natak' (an excuse) that would allow me to roam the city which they said was not advisable for an akeli ladki, young and burka-clad," recalls Ansari.
Her family however changed their opinion after they saw her photographs. "I decided instead of giving the burka a bad name, I was better off without it. I shed the head-scarf, and the response from people on the streets is different since then," says Ansari, whose favourite subjects include nature. "I like capturing anything that has beauty in it," says Ansari who got a pat on the back from actor Manoj Joshi, MP Priya Dutt and actor Gulshan Grover when Awaaz-e-Niswaan exhibited a collection of photographs at the Kala Ghoda Festival this year for the second time.
The response has been encouraging, Awaaz-e-Niswaan decided to launch a calendar and a diary using the women's photographs, and teamed up with NGOs across the country to capture the struggle of women in India. "Women here know what it is like to struggle. That helps us capture the emotion of other women who suffer in the same way," says Sahar Ansari, 31.
"I like photographs with truth," she says, narrating her meeting with an adivasi woman in Manikpur, UP whom she photographed, and with whom she ended up swapping stories. But getting the glossy finish hasn't been easy. "I was taking pictures in Govandi where water was being sold in the summer heat, when I was surrounded by a mob of men who tried to grab my camera and shoo me away," remembers Shaik, the youngest of the lot at 21. "'It's my camera, and no one but me will touch it,' I screamed," she smiles, waving off our question about ever feeling threatened.
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