[1]NEW DELHI: Over 50,000 Muslims have signed a petition spearheaded by Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA) seeking a ban on triple talaq.The online petition calls the triple talaq system ‘un-Quranic practice’.
Commenting on the ongoing movement, BMMA co-founder Zakia Soma said, over 50K have advocated for abolition of triple talaq system in the Muslim community. She said her organistaion has requested the National Commission for Women (NCW) for support.
While writing a letter to the NCW, the women’s rights group said, “We have found that women want a legal ban on the practice of oral/unilateral divorce. Our national study ‘Seeking Justice Within Family’ found that 92 percent of Muslim women want an end to this practice which destroys their life and the lives of their children. Coupled with oral divorce is the heinous practice of nikah halala which also must be abolished.
Meanwhile, reacting to the call for abolishing triple talaq practise, former Press Council of India chairman and Supreme Court of India judge Markandey Katju tweeted: “Where are the Mullahs ? Are they not going to do something against these heretics ?
He pitched for Common Civil Code and said Sharia law has kept Muslims backward.Earlier, Katju in his Facebbok post had said, “I am strongly against oral talaq and burqa among Muslims, and I support the demand of a uniform civil code,” Katju wrote on his official Facebook page.
Recently, a Muslim woman, who has been a victim of the ‘triple talaq’ system, has moved the Supreme Court to nullify the prevailing divorce practice.25-yr old Afreen Rehman hailing from Jaipur moved the apex court after receiving a divorce letter through speed post.
Narrating her ordeal, Rehman claimed, she got married in 2014 through a matrimonial portal, but after 2-3 months, her in-laws started demanding dowry and mentally harassed her.
Notably, All India Muslim Women Personal Law Board (AIMWPLB) president Shaista Ambar has also called for nullifying the triple talaq system.
A case is going on in the Supreme Court, in which petitioner Shayara Bano has challenged the constitutionality of Section 2 of the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937 in so far as it seeks to recognise and validate polygamy, triple talaq and nikah halala.
The petitioner also challenged the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939 saying that it fails to provide Indian Muslim women with protection from bigamy.
Talaq-e-bidat is a Muslim man divorcing his wife by pronouncing more than one talaq in a single tuhr (the period between two menstruations), or in a tuhr after coitus, or pronouncing an irrevocable instantaneous divorce at one go (unilateral triple-talaq).
A high-level committee set up by the Central government to review the status of women in India has reportedly recommended a ban on the practice of oral, unilateral and triple talaq (divorce) and polygamy.
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