CHENNAI: Women’s rights are human rights.” This was the basic premise that senior advocate Bader Sayeed began her talk with at the Creative Chambers in Alwarpet on Wednesday as she spoke about the dire need for the Triple Talaq bill to be passed in Parliament.
“It is an unfortunate situation today,” she said emphatically as the audience listened in rapt attention. “If this law does not go through, we will be back to square one. Forget what the holy book says or what the Qazi says, every divorce must go through the court of law. The maulvis and mullahs consider this interference in the Muslim personal law but there is no such thing as interference.”
She relayed harrowing instances from her experience as an advocate of what Muslim women were going through. She spoke of the ease with which men could wash their hands off their responsibilities and divorce their wives leaving them on the streets, helpless. Often, they are left with children to take care of.
“We live in a patriarchal society. It all comes down to the need for men to control women. Religion is meant to subjugate women which is why we need to codify the laws because right now there is no clarity on something as basic as the grounds for divorce. The Triple Talaq bill will be quite difficult to pass and there will be objection till the end of the world because of the need to control women but we need to pass it because today there is no deterrent for men to do this to their wives,” she said.
Sayeed urged those in the audience to do something, no matter how seemingly small, to help those who were marginalised. She emphasised the power of filing Public Interest Litigations (PILs). “We cannot turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the issues,” she said. “Each one of us has to stand up, lead those women in need of lawyers or legal aid. It is essential that we place papers before the court in these matters. Even if it takes years, at least she will remain his wife. Other countries have brought in reform when it comes to Triple Talaq but we are the custodians of Islam in India. The time hasn’t come for a uniform civil code in India because it will only mean that people will fight and shout more. We just need to codify the laws.”