Triple talaq” is becoming a menace for married Muslim women. Being a religious minority, our Muslims tend to cling tenaciously even to retrograde medieval customs.
Triple talaq” is becoming a menace for married Muslim women. Being a religious minority, our Muslims tend to cling tenaciously even to retrograde medieval customs. The State is rightly cautious about forcing progressive change so as not to upset religious sensitivities.
Muslim-majority countries, of course, are far more confident in this respect and have overhauled many old customs deemed to be not essential to the core of Islam and a hindrance in today’s more democratic world. We could learn from them without seeming arbitrary to Indian Muslims.
In this age of rapid technological change, the bad enough practice of “triple talaq” is made grotesque when marriages are ended over the mobile phone in one go. In the original version, time had to pass between the first two utterances of “talaq”, so as to allow for reconciliation.
Fortunately, many Muslim women across the country, many of whom are banded in strong organisations seeking gender equality, have raised their voice against “triple talaq” to the chagrin of orthodox, status quo outfits like the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board. They have welcomed the Centre’s submission to the Supreme Court opposing “triple talaq” on gender and constitutional grounds.
These arguments appear valid provided the BJP-led government does not use these submissions as the thin end of the wedge to force a uniform civil code, an old BJP demand to dismantle Muslim family laws. The position of the Law Commission is more nuanced. It has invited suggestions from the public whether to scrap “triple talaq”, retain it, or retain it with modifications.
