MUSLIM WOMEN’S BODY BACKS TRIPLE TALAQ BILL

LUCKNOW: The All-India Muslim Women’s Personal Law Board sided on Tuesday with the government on a bill seeking to criminal is et rip let alaq, which the AllIndia Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) has opposed.

The AIM PL B requested Prime Minister Na rend ra Mod ito withdraw the bill, which is set to be introduced in the Lok Sabha on Thursday. The government is pitching to provide a legal framework to prosecute Muslim men calling off marriages using a custom outlawed by the Supreme Court.

The board’s president Maulana Rabey Hasani Nadwi wrote in a four-page letter to the Prime Minister that the bill was against the Sharia, or Islamic law, and infringes constitutional rights guaranteed to religious minorities. Should the Centre go ahead with the bill, the AIMPLB will oppose the move since neither the board nor“true representatives” of Muslim women were consulted before preparing the legislation, he said.

The government got support from the Muslim women’ s personal law board, whose president Shaista Amber called the AIMPLB anti-women.

“Triple talaq is a draconian way to destroy the lives of women and it should be banned as it is un-Islamic. We support the government for bringing the bill as it protects the right of Muslim women who are treated as slaves by men,” she said in Behraich.

The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill is listed for introduction in the Lok S ab ha on December 28, according to the list of business in the Lower House. The bill makes instant trip let alaqo rt ala q-e-bidda tin any form — spoken, in writing or by electronic means such as email, SMSandWhatsApp—illegaland void, and provides for a jail term of three years for the husband.