Muslim women seek ban on oral talaq

Voices for a complete ban on oral talaq (divorce) has begun to assume high pitch as more and more Muslim women are coming to the fore demanding codification of Muslim family law to put an end to the practice of unilateral divorce that pushes hapless women into a state of abject misery.

 Muslim women on Wednesday took out a bike and bicycle rally in the City as part of the nationwide movement launched by the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA) to mobilise public opinion on the issue. They handed out a book “Stories of triple talaq and Indian Muslim women,” released by BMMA, to the people. The book depicts heart-rending stories of the victims of the practice.

 The oral triple talaq, which has been the bane of the women in the community, has assumed alarming proportions in the present age of technology. Men are now using skype, facebook, sms, email and mobile phones to divorce their wives. The divorced women are not entitled to any alimony or maintenance and thus driven to a pitiful existence after separation.

 “In spite of repeated demands to declare this practice illegal, the State refuses to acknowledge the problem. The BMMA, while spearheading the campaign, has also been in the process of drafting a Quran-complied codified Muslim family law to end the arbitrariness in decisions pertaining to divorce, polygamy, mehr, maintenance, custody of children, etc. If the community has a codified law like the Hindus, Christians and other religions, then the ills can be eliminated,” State convenor of BMMA Farhat Amin said. The BMMA had earlier conducted a survey on the issue, which had revealed that more than 83 per cent Muslim women were against the unilateral divorce and called for its abolition.