‘Instant divorce’ takes centre stage in India

Afreen Rahman, 28, is one of five Muslim women who recently took her case to India’s Supreme Court, demanding a ban on a controversial practice known as “triple talaq”, or instant divorce.

Afreen says she had been married just two months when her in-laws started harassing her over dowry. Afreen’s in-laws sent her back to her parents’ home. And then she received the notice of divorce in the mail.

“It was in his [the husband’s] own handwriting and was signed by two witnesses. Before pronouncing the divorce three times, he made horrible, baseless allegations against me, things I can’t even repeat in front of anyone,” she says.

“But the point is, how can you divorce someone like this, in an expedited letter?”

Afreen’s husband had performed triple talaq. By uttering the word “talaq” three times, he instantly divorced her, without her knowledge or agreement.

Jilted but determined, the young woman decided to fight back. In May, India’s Supreme Court heard petitions from women and groups, including Afreen, who were seeking to abolish triple talaq.

Now, as both sides await the court’s verdict with bated breath, a debate is firing up across India. Muslim scholars largely agree that performing triple talaq in one go is prohibited, and even punishable, as it violates the divorce procedure laid down in the Quran.

Talaq should be uttered on three separate occasions, they say, allowing time to resolve differences.

Mohammad Saleem is a member of the Muslim Personal Law Board, a coalition of Muslim organisations defending triple talaq.

“The problem is ignorance. Islam discourages divorce per se. Divorce is the most disliked among allowed things in Islam. But people do it.

"This is not an area where governments or courts can intervene and decide. It has to be resolved at the community level,” he added.

In this case, however, the Union Government has got involved, throwing its weight behind the women who are seeking the ban.

“We have taken our stand on the basis of the Constitution,” Union Law and Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters.

“The Indian Constitution gives women the right to life, equality and dignity without discrimination, and triple talaq does not satisfy the standards of gender equality, gender dignity and gender justice.”

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has chimed in as well, frequently raising the issue of triple talaq at public rallies.

Indian law currently respects Muslim personal law, a set of Islamic rules governing family life and other personal issues such as marriage, divorce and inheritance.

But with its slogan of “One Country, One Law”, Modi’s Hindu Nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) opposes Muslim personal law and favours a uniform civil code that would apply to all Indians.

Saleem sees this as an attack on religious freedom. “Clearly this is a ploy,” he says.

“They want to pave the way for a uniform civil code, and create divisions among communities. But personal laws are protected by the Constitution. It is a matter of religious freedom and they can’t take it away from us.”

Muslims in India are not, however, united on the issue.

Some, like author and activist Sadia Dehlavi, want to ban not only triple talaq, but also personal laws. “The reform is never going to come from the Muslim community,” she says.

“It is time for the courts to step in and do away with the personal laws and implement a uniform civil code that guarantees the same rights to Muslim women as to all other women in the country and there should be one law that protects all women across faiths.”

— Worldcrunch, in partnership with KBR Asia Calling/New York Times News Service

Bismillah Geelani is a writer and columnist based in India.