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HomeIndiaGovernanceTriple talaq: Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Aandolan unveil draft law to protect Muslim...

Triple talaq: Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Aandolan unveil draft law to protect Muslim women

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One of the petitioners in the triple talaq case said the top court does not clearly state what the status of the victims of instant divorce would be.

With one of the petitioners in the triple talaq case expressing her disappointment with the Supreme Court verdict abolishing it, the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Aandolan (BMMA) unveiled a draft Muslim family legislation Thursday, urging the government to make the law to protect Muslim women.

“We have no clarity on our fate,” Afreen Rehman, one of the petitioner in the case, said. The court order does not expressly state what the status of the women who were given instant divorce would be.

Urging the state to not stop at the SC verdict, BMMA co-founder Zakia Soman said, “The Indian state has failed Muslim women for many decades, and it is time it fulfilled its constitutional duty.”

The BMMA spearheaded the movement against triple talaq in the country.

However, in the aftermath of the verdict, Union ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad and Maneka Gandhi had ruled out the need for legislation to abolish the practice.

“The court has ruled; there is no need for a law,” Gandhi said.

“If the Uttar Pradesh elections were won by parties supporting the abolition of triple talaq, why do political parties not heed to Muslim women’s demand for a law,” Soman asked.

In the draft law prepared by the organisation, detailed provisions codifying laws for Muslim marriage, divorce, maintenance, custody, inheritance and adoption have been made.

The Supreme Court also fell short of declaring polygamy and nikah halala — which requires a woman to remarry and consummate the new marriage in order to return to her first husband — illegal even though the original petition sought intervention on that matter as well.

The absence of a legislation would impede legal recourse available for Muslim women, BMMA said. If a Muslim woman complains to the police citing violation of the court order, under what law would her husband be booked, asked Rehman.

The court did not delve into matters of compensation for victims, many of whom, have no means of income, she added.

Ishrat Jahan, another petitioner in the case from Kolkata, who has been getting constant threats for being “anti-Islam”, has been scrambling to make ends meet with the meagre income she earns through stitching clothes for the neighbourhood.

“Ishrat Jahan’s case is the latest example of locating politics on the fate of Muslim women,” Soman said.

Arguing that it has been the norm to further political agendas at cost of gender justice for Muslims, Soman said, “No political party or government has stood by Muslim women.”

While she said the government’s position on the matter was welcome, the victory in triple talaq was entirely that of women.

“Triple talaq is not about the prime minister, political party or a government,” she said.

Another member of the group said the government has failed to appropriate the narrative on triple talaq, and must follow it up by legislation if it actually stands gender justice.

Further distancing the organisation from the Hindu rightwing, Noorjehan, another co-founder, said that the BMMA has no position on the uniform civil code.

“Not a single page of the uniform civil code has ever been written. How can anyone support it,” she asked.

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