New Delhi: With the Constitution bench all set to hear the Triple Talaq case from Thursday, demands to reform Muslim personal law are getting louder.
Travelling over 2,000 kilometres from West Bengal to Delhi, a joint action committee of three groups, Pragatishil Muslim Samaj, Reformist Muslim Society and Secular Mission, demands not only the abolishment of Triple Talaq, Nikah Halala, and Polygamy, but also says that “the number game of who supports it and who does not should end and even if one woman is a victim of Triple Talaq, then that should be a crime.”
All India Muslim Personal Law Board had recently claimed that the organisation had garnered almost five crore signatures in support of ‘no interference’ to the Muslim personal law, but Dr Syed Tanveer Nasreen, head of the committee and also a party to the case which will be heard from May 11, told News18 that the question is about “unconstitutionality” of the practice and not the numbers.
“Why has it become a number game now? Yes, we received around 28,000 signatures and AIMPLB claims around 5 crores, but even if there is one such divorce, there should be a remedy by which such a practice can be declared a crime,” said Tanveer.
The committee has been protesting against such “unjust” practices from the last 7 to 8 years, but the movement has gained more steam in the last one year as the apex court saw a flurry of petitions demanding a reform in Muslim personal laws.
Interestingly, Tanveer feels that questions of divorce, property rights and inheritance are matters of public domain and cannot merit religious interference.
“We are not asking for the Quran, Geeta or the Bible to be rewritten. All that we are asking for is these matters are not of the private domain and are public issues. I am a Muslim married to a Hindu under Special Marriage Act and there is no religion involved in this. Similarly, why should there be discrimination against a woman and she be tortured because of such laws,” says the group head.
The group, which had victims of the practice accompanying it, carrying placards, shared their ordeals. Speaking on behalf of the victims, Kazi Masoom Akhtar, secretary of the committee, said that “this rule of patriarchy needs to end and it’s time women are stopped being used only as objects of enjoyment”.
“We do not want to identify the victim. But there is a case here, where the husband had married two girls who were sisters and then divorced both of them in a single year. Do they think it is a joke? This needs to end and only the courts can do it now,” said Akhtar.
The convener of the organisation, Osman Mallick, rubbished AIMPLB’s diktat on Muslim personal law and termed it as “an NGO”. He also told News18 that Shariat needs to be in tandem with Constitution and only a law tested on the basis of Constitution should prevail.
“Till now, Shariat law was never challenged… now it has been challenged and I am sure the courts will decide if it is best for a secular country like India. AIMPLB, which is nothing but an NGO, thinks it can pass orders and give rulings. It has no locus standi whatsoever to say that people who are protesting are non-Muslims and have no faith. There are so many religious scholars across Bengal who have supported us,” said Mallick.
The committee also claims to have the support of retired Supreme Court judge, Justice Ashok Ganguly. The committee has also recently given a memorandum addressed to the President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Chief Justice of India, J S Khehar.
Dr Tanveer, who will be in court on Thursday to witness the commencement of hearings in the case, said Mamata Banerjee government has till now “maintained a stoic silence on the issue” and said that “the ruling party in Bengal thinks that any issue of personal law reform is only gross conspiracy of the Hindu majority.”
“We are not here to take any political stand. But AIMPLB held its annual general meeting in Kolkata in November and we did not agree with most of their views. We hope our Chief Minister understands our problem. This is about basic human rights and women rights. Statements made by people like Imam Barkati only fuel the communal divide in the state and they must stop,” said Dr Tanveer.