BMMA also suggests that the practice be made a bailable crime and jail term be cut to 1 year from 3 years proposed in triple talaq bill.
New Delhi: An influential Muslim women’s organisation has suggested that the right to file an FIR for instant divorce rest only with the aggrieved wife, and not any others as proposed in the controversial triple talaq bill.
The suggestion is aimed at preventing any misuse of the proposed law to curb the practice of instant triple talaq.
While the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Aandolan (BMMA) is still of the view that the practice should be made a criminal and cognisable offence, as proposed by the government, it has proposed that it also be made a bailable offence.
Moreover, according to the proposed amendments, the imprisonment should be for a period of one year or fine, as opposed to the three-year jail term proposed in the bill.
“We know that the political climate is not the most conducive. There is a threat of potential misuse; there are beef lynchings, among others,” said Zakia Soman, the founder of BMMA, which spearheaded the struggle against instant triple talaq.
Yet, it is unfair to use that fear to maintain a patriarchal status quo, she added. The burden of waiting for the “right time” is always on the Muslim woman, Soman said.
“First we were told that the wounds of the Partition are too fresh; then there was Ayodhya. And now the excuse is that there is a BJP government in power,” she said.
However, former Congress minister Arif Mohammad Khan who acted as a catalyst to the triple talaq bill push, said that putting the onus only on the Muslim woman to lodge an FIR would put her at a disadvantage.
“If you leave the burden on the woman, she will not be able to (fight the legal battle) herself,” he said.
The practice of triple talaq is prevalent largely among weaker sections of the community, and the women in these sections are not empowered, Khan said.
“The women who are victims of this form of divorce generally lack the ability to pursue their cases and are open to societal pressure not to protest against the irrevocable divorce as they are told that doing so would amount to going against the religion,” Khan added.
While the BMMA and Khan may have differing views on the government’s bill, both feel that the Congress party’s stand on the issue is wishy-washy.
“I don’t think the Congress party has a definite stand on the issue,” Soman said. “If the BJP is being accused of appropriation of the triple talaq issue, shouldn’t the Congress also be accused of appropriating minority issues in another way?”
While the BJP can be criticised for a variety of reasons, one must remember that “it has taken a BJP government in power to bring a law for Muslim women,” she said.
Yet, the BMMA has written letter to both the Prime Minister and Congress president Rahul Gandhi appealing to them to work together in this matter.
“Political differences cannot be the basis to deny constitutional duties,” she said.
When asked about the Congress’ demand to create a maintenance corpus for Muslim women, Soman said, “It would be termed discriminatory if there is a corpus just for Muslim women. It is not the answer.”
However, Khan is of the view that Congress should amend the wrong that was committed in 1986.
“It would be more prudent for Congress to propose amendment to that law to create a corpus and amend the wrong that was committed in 1986,” he said.
Khan had resigned from the Rajiv Gandhi cabinet over its handling of the Shah Bano case in 1986.