ASIA / PACIFIC
July 18, 2016
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 3
Muslim women campaign to end instant divorce in India
TRIPLE TALAQ. An Indian Muslim woman,
Shagufta Sayyd, prays at the office of Bhartiya Muslim
Mahila Andolan, or the Indian Muslim Women’s
Movement, in Mumbai, India. Shagufta is among In-
dian Muslim women who are campaigning against an
Islamic practice that allows men to divorce their wives
by simply saying “divorce” three times. The so-called
instant divorce has already been banned in more than
20 Muslim countries, including neighboring Pakistan
and Bangladesh. But in India, the practice is allowed
thanks to the country’s rules protecting Muslim, Chris-
tian, and Hindu communities following religious law.
(AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
By Rishabh R. Jain and Manish Mehta
The Associated Press
M
UMBAI, India — Just hours
after Shagufta Sayyd was
married, her new husband told
her he was having a relationship with
another woman.
He was clear the two would have no
future, the 21-year-old Sayyd said. He was
only marrying her to please his mother.
“He said, ‘no, I don’t want to keep you,’”
she said. “So he said, ‘divorce, divorce,
divorce’ three times, and that was it.”
Sayyd still insists on using her
husband’s surname, until she can end the
marriage officially in an Indian court. But
like many other women from India’s large
Sunni Muslim minority, her fate and
status are governed by Muslim Personal
Law that follows the tenets of the Islamic
faith, as interpreted by local imams and
religious schools across India.
The so-called triple talaq, or instant
divorce, has been banned in more than 20
Muslim countries, including neighboring
Pakistan and Bangladesh. But in India,
the practice is allowed thanks to the coun-
try’s rules protecting Muslim, Christian,
and Hindu communities following reli-
gious law.
Most of the 170 million Muslims in India
are Sunnis governed by Muslim Personal
Law for family matters and disputes.
Those laws include allowing men to
divorce their wives by simply uttering the
word talaq, or divorce in Urdu, three times
— and not necessarily consecutively, but
at any time, and by any medium including
telephone, text message, or post on social
media.
Some women are fed up with what they
say is an archaic and patriarchal rule that
too often leaves them destitute. Muslim
women do not have the same right, and
those left by their husbands have no claim
to alimony though they can collect a small
payment for three months after divorce.
Then, they’re on their own.
“They have been divorced by speed post,
by sending out letters. Some have just
simply said talaq three times and the
divorce has happened,” said Noorjehan
Safia Niaz, co-founder of Bhartiya Muslim
Mahila Andolan, or the Indian Muslim
Women’s Movement.
The movement has been fighting for
equal laws for Muslim women for six years.
“There are cases where women don’t
even know that they’ve been divorced,”
Niaz said. “The children are without any
support. So, it has become very convenient
for Muslim men to just say talaq thrice ... it
is just so easy for him to get the woman out
of his life.”
Legal experts say the practice is
unconstitutional, and the Supreme Court
has been pushing for uniformity in laws. In
1985, the top court ordered a man to pay
alimony to his elderly wife, after verbally
divorcing and abandoning her.
The Indian government in office at the
time, however, managed to overturn the
verdict retroactively by passing a law to
protect Muslim divorce law. Many suspect
the government was under pressure from
Muslim leaders to stay out of their
business or lose their electoral support.
The move frustrated women’s-rights
activists. India had long since banned
dowry payments from a girl’s parents to
the family of a groom before marriage,
though many still practice the ancient
Hindu tradition openly, they note. And
more recently, India threw out Hindu laws
that barred women from inheriting
property from their fathers.
What makes the instant divorce laws so
difficult, some say, is the fact that they are
not codified and so are open to interpreta-
tion and adjustment.
One Supreme Court lawyer called the
practice “barbaric.”
“This is a kind of an ISIS-like rule
prevailing in India,” an advocate, Monika
Arora, said, referring to the militant
Islamic State that controls much of Syria
and Iraq. “No progressive country can
tolerate this.”
In early July, the women’s movement
collected more than 50,000 signatures
q
Nepal investigating Indian couple’s Everest summit claim
KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — A Nepal-
ese tourism official says the government is
investigating a climbing claim by an
Indian couple who are accused of altering
photographs of themselves on the summit
of Mount Everest.
The chief of Nepal’s Department of Tour-
ism, Sudarshan Dhakal, said authorities
are reviewing the Everest climb by Dinesh
Rathod and his wife Tarakeshwari on May
21.
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calling for a nationwide ban on instant
divorces. That petition is being added as
evidence in an appeal filed to the Supreme
Court to ban instant divorces. The court
has asked the central government for its
opinion before scheduling a hearing.
Since the 1950s, “Hindu personal law
has been constantly evolving and codified,”
Arora said. “Why this ‘touch-me-not’
perception for Muslim laws?”
She said India should follow the
example set by other Islamic nations,
including Turkey, Cyprus, Pakistan, and
Bangladesh, in banning the triple talaq.
But there is sure to be resistance. Some
Islamic bodies, including the hardline
Raza Academy based in Mumbai, say any
women who dislike the laws of Islam can
always leave the religion.
One academy cleric, Mohammad Saeed
Noori, said it was possible that men were
not performing the triple talaq correctly.
“Don’t give three altogether in one go.
People who do that are doing it wrong,”
Noori said. But “if he says it thrice, then
the divorce is immediately confirmed.
Then that woman has to immediately
leave his house.”
The two were issued climber’s certifi-
cates from the Nepal government after
they presented a photograph of themselves
on the 29,035-foot summit.
Fellow climbers, however, say the couple
never reached the summit and used some-
one else’s photographs to get the climbing
certificate. If the accusation is found to be
true, the couple would lose their
certificates and be banned from climbing
any mountains in Nepal.