“The religion and quran gives space for reform, but it has not happened in the patriarchial setup of the Muslim Personal Law Board.”
– Zakia Soman, founder member, Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan.
“Where more than 80% of the citizens have already been brought under the codified personal law, there is no justification whatsoever to keep in abeyance, any more the introduction of the uniform civil code for all citizens in the territory of India.” – Supreme court of India in Sarla Mudgal, president, Kalyani and Ors. Vs. Union of India case.
Military of this state is always in a ‘Wake-up’ mode. Protecting their motherland and fighting for their rights has never been forgotten by these brave souls and, for that only OROP today has gathered a nation-wide support base with much zeal and hype. But, why this soil always goes for a ‘maunvrat’ when it comes to the rights of the systematically cheated innocent and unvoiced civilians who, though raucously shouts for some superficial issues like ‘intolerance’ and ’human rights violation in Kashmir’ etc. close their eyes to their own aches. Approaching to the core concern for which this article is intended for is ‘the need of abolishing the rudely patriarchal Triple talaq system’ and bringing the most controversial (unfortunately) Uniform Civil Code and celebrate feminism in it’s truest sense.
Before depicting this author as a ‘Bhakt’ or ‘Hindu radical’, bear in mind the Shah Bano Begum case where a mother of five, better to be called as an old unemployed lady of 62 was divorced with a draconian ‘triple talaq’ system and was refused to get a single Indian rupee from her husband beyond the period of iddat which the Supreme court dared to disagree with. This is not a sole time when this nation weeped for the unfortunate violation of human rights of the Muslim women and asked for an ‘Uniform civil code’; several times the Supreme Court has suggested the centre to make UCC a veracity but, honestly for no other reason except the cheap and cheesy ‘minority appeasement’, it’s still nothing more than a nightmare.
Before we question the requisite of such a law which has been denied in the name of ‘sensitivity’, we must not forget the ruthless structure of Shariah which rebuff basic rights to Muslim women. Firstly, the system of triple talaq is disastrous and in no way just. While a Muslim man possess every right to divorce his wife even without any reason or explanations by pronouncing ‘Talaq’ for three times, a woman possessing the same religious faith has to knock the doors of the court which, not so horrendously can take years for a conclusion and definitely brutality, misery, abuse, adultery and ridiculous psychological strain from the husband and in-laws.
Again, there comes a law which although permits polygamy, takes discussing ‘polyandry’ a sin, may be forgetting that the globe is full of motion to warmly welcome 42nd international women’s day !! By the way, it is freshly pointed out by High court of Gujarat that, “When the quran allowed polygamy, it was for a fair reason. When men use that provision today, they do it for a selfish reason. Polygamy finds mention in Quran only once, and it is about conditional polygamy.”
Not only gender prejudice, but the law of equality is heinously humiliated and violated by the continuation of these personal laws. Whereas article 14 of the constitution of India guarantees equal rights to all the citizens of India, a Christian can’t marry twice or thrice as a Muslim, may be without a need which undoubtedly goes against the fundamental foundation of justice.
The first apprehension which the minorities assume is the command of the majority over their private lives but, it must be recognised that the whole debate is to manufacture a law which is supposed to take care of the ‘Indians’ evenly, regardless of their values or beliefs. Secondly, the advocacy done by putting their so called ‘religious sentiments’ is out of rationality as this country has a penal code of it’s very own which treats each of it’s citizens uniformly when it comes to criminal laws although Shariah orders to get a thief’s right hand chopped.
It’s high time to grasp the fact that we are in a year called ‘2016’ which trusts in science and logic and these absurd concepts of ‘personal laws’ don’t suit us. The theory of ‘selective secularism’ has smashed the spirit of the preamble of our constitution and has been playing ‘April fool’ with us since 67 years. Whereas the evils of ‘Sati Pratha’ has been abolished and welcomed, evils such as ‘polygamy’ ,’triple talaq’(abolished by many Islamic nations !!), ’muta marriage’ are satires to our intellect. Before our next generation chuckles at their forefathers, we have to wake up from our slumber and save a million ‘Shah Banos’ whom these Personal laws treat mercilessly. If we gain a title ‘rightist’ while asking for ‘justice to feminism’, instead of taking it as an offence, we should feel honoured.
~ Alokananda Bisoyi, BA 1st year, Tata Institute of social sciences, Hyderabad
