Signature campaigns erupt for and against triple talaq

NEW DELHI: At least two groups working for the rights of Muslims have alleged their women are being forced to sign a form supporting ‘triple talaq’, even as a signature war erupted in the community in support and against the Islamic way of divorce.

While the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) has launched a nationwide drive to collect signatures of people “to save and protect Shariat Laws” – related to marriage, divorce and inheritance – women’s rights groups have come up with a counter-campaign.

The signature war comes against the backdrop of the Law Commission’s move to get feedback on the Uniform Civil Code, a set of identical civil laws, and a government affidavit in the Supreme Court opposing ‘triple talaq’ and polygamy among

SHAISTA AMBER, president, All India Muslim Women Personal Law Board

Muslims. Under ‘triple talaq’, a man can divorce his wife by saying the Urdu word three times.

Patna teacher Shagoofta Khatoon said her sister’s inlaws have asked all women in the family to sign forms distributed at the local mosque. “She has a family to look after. It’s not easy to defy the men in our society,” Khatoon, who has filed a case

KAMAL FAROOQUI, member, All India Muslim Personal

Law Board

in a Patna court against her husband for divorcing her, said.

Shaista Amber, president of the All India Muslim Women Personal Law Board, said her organisation was getting scores of such complaints “mainly from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh”. Formed in 2005, Amber’s group works for women’s rights.

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