India’s Supreme Court yesterday said that the Muslim practice that allows men to instantly divorce their wives is unconstitutional and ordered the government to legislate an end to the practice.
The bench, comprising five senior judges of different faiths, deliberated for three months before issuing its order, which was in response to petitions from seven Muslim women who had been divorced through the practice known as triple talaq.
The government must now amend the sections of India’s Muslim personal law that allows the practice, which allows men to divorce their wives by simply uttering the Arabic word talaq,” or divorce, three times — and not necessarily consecutively, but at any time, and by any medium, including telephone, text message or social media post.
Photo: AFP
The decision was widely lauded by women’s rights activists as a step toward granting Muslim women greater equality and justice.
“It’s a very happy day for us. It’s a historic day,” said Zakia Soman, cofounder of the Indian Muslim Women’s Movement, which was part of the legal battle to end triple talaq.
“We, the Muslim women, are entitled to justice from the courts as well as the legislature,” she said.
More than 20 Muslim countries, including Pakistan and Bangladesh, have banned the practice. However, in India, triple talaq has continued with the protection of laws that allow Muslim, Christian and Hindu communities to follow religious law in matters like marriage, divorce, inheritance and adoption.
While most Hindu personal law has been overhauled and codified over the years, Muslim laws have been left to religious authorities and left largely untouched.
Most of the 170 million Muslims in India are Sunnis governed by Muslim Personal Law for family matters and disputes. India’s Muslim Law Board had told the court that while they considered the practice of triple talaq wrong, they opposed any court intervention and asked that the matter be left to the community to tackle.
However, several progressive Muslim campaigners have decried the law board’s position.
“This is the demand of ordinary Muslim women for over 70 years and it’s time for this country to hear their voices,” rights campaigner Feroze Mithiborwala told NDTV.
The current government supports an end to the practice. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said in many public addresses that the practice oppresses Muslim women and needs to be ended.
Modi praised the judgement as “historic.”
“It grants equality to Muslim women and is a powerful measure for women empowerment,” he wrote on Twitter.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in