 Mary Roy, educator and women's rights activist, died on Thursday. In 1986, Roy won a historic decades-long battle in the Supreme Court that secured equal inheritance rights of Syrian Christian women as their male siblings. In 2009, a Kerala court finally settled the inheritance which she has left to charity. We have with us writer and editor Geeta Hariharan, who has also fought a crucial legal battle for women's rights. Hi Geeta. Geeta, can you please begin by talking about Mary Roy's legacy and at a time when you have cases like Bill Kisbanos, the rip is being released on the mission, what does her life and her struggle really symbolize today? Yes, let me begin by saying that at any point in these last 75 years, post-independence, a life like Mary Roy's would have been something for us to look up to. Let me say why in many ways. First, of course, the most obvious answer is the landmark case that she fought for so many years, not just in the courts but in the community and even within the family. So this is really important to understand because in present times, if it's something in the court, you at least have the support of people on social media and the civil society supporters and so on. But here was a woman who survived a difficult childhood, restrictive conservative community but had ambitions, she studied and came back, left a bad marriage and came back with her children and discovered that as a Syrian Christian woman that she was not entitled to her share of whatever was her father's property and she was actually asked to leave a cottage in Utti that belonged to her father. So the shock there, and I think this is especially important to remember that for middle class women, when you discover that you might be middle class, you might have certain levels of privilege compared to other women in this country. Because you are a woman, you are deprived of your rights as a citizen, you do not have equal rights and of course if you belong to certain communities, it's even worse. So there are various things here. One is that she discovers as a Syrian Christian woman that she's entitled to not only to one fourth I think of her brother's share but all 5000 rupees, whichever is less. So in other words, there's a specific amount which is mentioned. So I have to say that I really feel strongly about this because I discovered the similar fallibility of the Hindu personal law. So I think what we have to look at is that we have brave women who have come forward and said no, I will not accept this, I will fight it out in court and that's what she did and she did get a judgment which struck that down and so that Syrian Christian women, the Travancore Christian Succession Act of 1916 was no longer valid and the value of these cases, again that is important because it's how other women use this procedure, what it does for other women, other Christian women in that community and apparently there was a huge backlash and there were attempts by politicians as well as the church in short the establishment, the patriarchal establishment to say oh no, if this is with retrospective effect you're going to have all kinds of cases within the family. So this is also a very important aspect of this case which is that you valorize the family as if it is the unit that upholds equality, well it's not. So you have to look at all battles for equality in multiple settings, the court yes, but if the law cannot be implemented in real life there's just no point. So it has to be the community, the establishment which includes the religious establishment and then of course the family. Right Geeta, Geeta a little bit on the context today, can women like Mary Roy, can there be more women like her today, do the circumstances allow for that to happen? I think you know we have to recognize the very many brave individual women as well as those collectives of women whether they're visible or not. You know if you happen to be from a particular class background or involved in activities that bring you to the public eye then people know this and we are grateful for that, we're grateful for that because we all need role models, we all need people to look up to and say oh this is possible, I too can you know make my little modest contribution. So that is there but I think we must not forget that, will you mention Bilkis Banu, I think in a way she symbolizes this moment that all this talk about 75th year of independence, all this talk, all this lip service paid to women's rights and what is happening, here is somebody who expressed faith in the judicial system, who was so brave, was so astonishingly brave and stood up to rapists, murderers, the terror of that experience as well as the aftermath and to actually let her down like this, it's not letting down just one woman, it's not letting down just the Muslim community, it's letting down all the women and all the citizens of this country because this is not a question of women versus men, it's a question of obscurantism, inequality versus progressive equality. Right, to return to Mary Roy again, Gita you fought your own legal battle, you fought long and hard and did you actually ever meet her, did you know her well, is there a connection between the two of you? No, I never met her, of course like many of us I know Arun Dati, her daughter, but we do have a person in common, the wonderful advocate Indira Jayas Singh, who was involved in both our cases and this is what I mean about the, you don't even really have to know all these women, but you know there is a community of women, some you will never meet in your lifetime, you might not have a language in common, but you know it is this awareness that there are individuals as well as movements that support equality which actually keep you going, that's what keeps one going. My own case again the personal laws are framed with the view to upholding the rights quote unquote of the powerful and of marginalizing those who are already marginalized to some extent or the other, so in terms of gender, in terms of caste and so on. So not surprisingly Hindu women too, you know the cliches always that Muslim women are battered and oppressed and so on. So again like Mary Roy it was quite a shock to me when I went to the reserve bank to make a little investment in the name of my minor son and I was told I'm not the natural guardian. So you know I stood there and said do you know the meaning of the word natural? You know you feel especially indignant because there's such a premium placed on marriage and motherhood and it's as if they're turning around and saying oh you know well you only have the responsibility, you don't have any rights over your child. And again the peculiar contradictions now in the Mary Roy case apparently if Sri Dhanam or some kind of dowry was either given or promised then even that 5000 rupees wouldn't be given but there is also a dowry prevention act. So really it's a case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing and similarly in my case I discovered if I said that I wasn't married and if I said my children are illegitimate then I was quite free to be the natural guardian and of course the point of principle you want to make as a citizen of the country is to say there's no such thing as an illegitimate child it's the this law that is illegitimate because it doesn't understand that you know both parents have an equal right to the child. So I think till we clean up laws till we find ways of not either beating members of a religious community with a stick nor diminishing them to just that identity you know we're always going to have this kind of inequality persisting. And women who are struggling against it. Yes yes I think though these are small steps you know in my case it's not as if the Hindu Guardianship Act was struck down so it was it was a lukewarm victory I have to add that because you know though it was touted as a landmark judgment it wasn't really because all they said was that the woman too can be the guardian you know so of course your first reaction is well thank you very much did I need the law to say that but the point is that again other people where you know marriages are breaking down there are custodial quarrels warren fear can use the judgment as a precedent and hopefully the small stepping stones will help others. I also want to add about Mary Roy that it was not just this case you know you have to look at the this woman in her the fullness of her achievement that she also was an educator she wanted to obviously bring about change in very pragmatic ways day to day in the classroom and I think this is particularly inspirational because very often these days in these terrible times of division and hate speech and so on you think sometimes you almost want to give up on adults and you think it's children you know if children are thought to think to question to be independent minded and not swallow stereotypes then there's hope for the world and she set up a very interesting school where they were open minded willing to conduct experiments in the you know in learning and I think that too should be remembered. Thank you Gita thanks very much for joining us and thank you very much for watching NewsClick do follow us on our social media and keep watching us thank you.