Aizawl: Influential students’ body in Mizoram, the Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP) has warned political parties from giving party ticket to any Mizo woman, who is married to a non-tribal, to contest the upcoming assembly elections in the state.
Elections to the 40-member Mizoram Legislative Assembly will be held on November 7.
“We at the MZP strongly opposed to any woman candidate, who is married to a non-tribal from contesting the elections to the Mizoram Assembly. Therefore, we warn political parties from issuing party ticket to any such woman,” MZP General Secretary, Chinkhanmanga Thomte told The NE Journal.
“The MZP wants to make it very clear that this decision is not racist, but our intention is to protect our culture, identity and politically. We need to look beyond 50 years,” he said.
Thomte said that the MZP has launched an awareness programme among the Mizo girls and boys not to marry anyone from outside the community.
The MZP has been campaigning against Mizo women marrying with men from outside the community, especially non-tribals. It had also administered pledges to hundreds of students across Mizoram not to marry outside the Mizo tribe.
In 2018, the Young Mizo Association (YMA), a non-political and voluntary organisation in Mizoram, had also demanded the enactment of a legislation to ensure that a Mizo woman who marries a non-Mizo would lose her scheduled tribe status.
According to the Mizo customary law, a Mizo woman who marries a non-Mizo man loses her Mizo tribal rights.
