Kamarunissa Anwar is a leader of the Indian Union Muslim League.

In an incident showing male dominance in Indian politics, a senior woman politician was stopped from addressing the audience at a function of a political party in Kerala.

Kamarunissa Anwar, a woman leader of Indian Union Muslim League’s (IUML) and the state president of its women’s wing, while attending the state conference of Muslim Youth League in Kozhikode on 12 November, was informed that she could not deliver a speech as she was s woman, reported NDTV.

Anwar was the only woman on the dais along with many senior leaders of IUML. When she got up to deliver her speech after MLA KM Shaji concluded his speech, the party state secretary M C Mayeen Haji walked up to her and said: “It’s not in the League’s tradition for women to speak to men.”

“I waited (till the last speaker) hoping that they would invite me (to address the audience). Anyway, I didn’t speak,” Kamarunnisa Anwar told Asianet News. “They invited (me for the meeting), I went. I saw, and I returned. That’s all,” she added.

However, Anwar did not question the leader while she was denied permission to speak. The incident sparked a controversy after an audio recording of the conversation was leaked.

“Women do not address public gatherings. Women are given much more respect than men, the reason why we don’t encourage them to be part of processions or late night events,” Haji told NDTV.

Women, Haji, said, “were welcome to speak to a specific audience like a delegation, but must not address public gatherings.”

Haji told Asianet News that even the Mujahid movement (the Kerala Nadvatul Mujahideen, one the most progressive Muslim organizations in Kerala) do not allow women to speak in their conferences.

Though Anwar felt sad, she said that she didn’t have any complaint. During the Kerala state assembly elections, she had protested against the party’s decision not to field women members in the election.