Author: Kavita Koshy
Publication: The Free Press Journal
Date: June 3, 2003
Somewhere in the bylanes of Byculla,
resides 20-year-old Sakina in her mother's home. Mother of two boys and
divorced last year by the single sitting of the triple talaq, young Sakina
is petrified of the future. Her mother Noreen says, "It is a sinister word.
We would like Sakina to get married again and so we are hunting for men
who are divorced themselves."
Today, there exists a million Sakina's
in India with their lives in penury due to the single sitting talaq. The
problem has more of a social tan a religious edge to it. Retorts Nasreen,
a Sunni Muslim, bolder than the rest "sometimes there are incidences of
uttering the talaq in a drunken or a despairing state." She cites the example
of her friend who had her marriage annulled when her husband mailed her
a letter with the triple talaq pronouncement. "It is unfair but we cannot
do anything about it" she wails.
According to advocate begum Nilofer
Akhtar, a Muslim scholar whose views are reckoned by the All India Muslim
Personal Law Board and whose crusades for the rights of the Muslim women
are legendary, "Islam is the first religion in the world which recognized
divorce by mutual consent around 1400 years ago whereas then Hindus recognized
in 1976 and the Christians in 2001. Divorce by mutual consent happens when
the differences between the spouses become a threat to the marriage."
She further claimed, "talaq has
to be given only when the wife is not menstruating. As per the Koran, on
estrangement, an arbitrary body has to be appointed under the condition
that the couple live together in the same house for scope of reconciliation.
The Koran rules that a minimum period of a month is required between each
of the three pronouncements of the talaq."
But it is only in India that the
single sitting of the triple talaq is valid. Other Muslim nations like
Syria, Lebanon among others do not however term this pronouncement legal
unless the matter is brought to the notice of the court or the arbitration
council. Maybe this can be attributed to the Muslim psyche in India which
charges men with implicit power and women to slavish relegation.
The Ahle Hadiz fatwa invalidated
the triple talaq in one sitting thus soaring the hopes of the average Indian
woman. However a Sunni Muslim cleric who did not wish to named said, "If
we had validated it then our people would begin to question the clergy
and the patriarchal stance of power would begin to sideline." But is this
fatwa unIslamic? "No," said the cleric, "I will not comment on it." So
of the fatwa is not unIslamic, is not the staunch opposition against the
single sitting triple talaq justified?
Jamal, a trader from the Andheri
area says, "we know that the situation is unfair and the Ahle Hadiz fatwa
has Koranik bend to it. But we cannot rebel for the fear of the clerical
backlash. It is touted by some educated Muslims that most religious Muslims
are ignorant of the many laws and so they misinterpret it.
But how many Indian Muslim women
know their right of dissolving their marriage at their own behest? This
form of divorce is known as the khula. A woman can carry out the khula
in menstruation but she will have to forego her mehr - a gratuitous gift
given to her by her husband on the day of her wedding a Muslim woman can
dissolve her marriage by talaq-e-tafweez on specified grounds without the
consent of her husbandor the intervention of any authority. This law is
validated in Pakistan, Iran and some other Muslim countries.
According to Begum Akhtar, the Dissolution
of Marriage Act of 1939, a wife can resolve her marriage if the whereabouts
of her husband is unknown for 4 years, if he neglects to maintain her for
2 years, impotency, insanity, affliction from a venereal disease, cruelty,
insufferable treatment in a polygamous marriage and interference with her
property.
As most of the Muslim women read
the Koran without understanding the laws, they tend to approbate silently
these reprehensible laws. Nowhere else but in India, Muslim women wanting
a khula need the consent of her husband, explains Akhtar.
