MUMBAI // For Muslims, divorce by triple talaq, whereby a man need simply say “I divorce you” three times, is an established, if controversial, practice.
In India it has been deemed legally acceptable for Muslim men to end marriages using triple talaq by text message, by phone, or even on WhatsApp, giving no reason. The neighbouring countries of Bangladesh and Pakistan have banned triple talaq. Now India is wondering if it should do the same.
“It completely disempowers women,” said Vandana Shah, a divorce lawyer based in Mumbai “You don’t have a voice because you can’t even challenge it. It strips you financially of whatever is rightfully yours. It’s like the nuclear bomb of all divorces.
“I had a case come to me last week which I don’t know how I’m going to handle where the husband has WhatsApped the wife the triple talaq.”
India’s law ministry is challenging the validity of the triple talaq through the supreme court on the grounds that it leaves Muslim women vulnerable socially and financially.
Lubna Choudhary, 32, from Mumbai, was divorced through triple talaq in 2008 after just two years of marriage because her husband (also her cousin) wanted to marry someone else. Ms Choudhary discovered after her marriage that her husband had been married before and had divorced his first wife via triple talaq.
“Definitely triple talaq should be banned because it is an un-Islamic practice being done in the name of Islam,” said Ms Choudhary. Her ex-husband – who she says was often violent – has never paid maintenance for her or their son, now 11, so she qualified as a teacher.
“Muslim men have been exploiting women of their community and it’s high time that women must realise their value,” said Shayara Bano, 35, from Uttarakhand in north India, whose husband of more than 10 years divorced her by talaq last year. He also took their two children and forbade all contact. She has filed a petition in the supreme court to have her divorce annulled and to ban triple talaq in India, as well as polygamy, and the practice of halala, which dictates that a divorced woman who is going to return to her former husband has to marry another man and consummate that marriage before she can be taken back.
“Muslim women must stop bearing this ill-treatment and should not sit back and cry or suffer,” said Ms Bano.
A survey conducted by the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA), which campaigns for Muslim women’s rights in India, revealed that 92 per cent of women said that they wanted to see triple talaq banned. The BMMA has also filed a petition to the supreme court seeking an end to triple talaq in India.
“Triple talaq is part of the traditions and customs and it’s part of sharia law,” said BMMA co-founder Noorjehan Safia Niaz. “But the Quran doesn’t sanction triple talaq.”
Islamic family law is not codified in India and there is no uniform civil code, so this leaves Islamic law open to interpretation.
“Our demands are that based on provisions in the Quran, the entire Muslim family law must be codified, so that things are down on paper and parliament passes that law, so that gender justice is ensured,” said Ms Niaz. “Our whole concern is that women should not be deprived of their constitutional and Quranic rights of equality and justice.”
She hears of so many women “abandoned so easily by their husbands” that she says it is “like a silent epidemic”. Nor is it limited to poorer, working class families. Triple talaq also occurs among middle class and well-educated Muslim families. But the effects are the same.
The All India Muslim Personal Law Board wants to keep triple talaq and warns that if it is scrapped, men may resort to murder to get rid of their wives. The board did not respond to a request for comment.
The ruling from the supreme court should come through this year, although some activists fear it may take several months. A hearing scheduled for Tuesday has been postponed with no new date set.
Not all Muslim women in India oppose triple talaq. Housewife Ruksar Chauhan, 24, from Mumbai, who is married, said: “Sharia law gives guidelines and the path of the way of living to individuals. If one has to follow the rules religiously, then under no circumstances should they be changed.”
Which is why women like Ms Niaz say Muslim law must be codified. But the priority, she says, is to make triple talaq illegal. “That is absolutely the urgent demand.”
foreign.desk@thenational.ae
