AIMPLB drops member who opposed triple talaq

FALLOUT Rukhsana Lari took on the the clergy at a seminar last year RUKHSANA LARI SAID SHE HAD NOT RECEIVED ANY COMMUNICATION FROM THE BOARD REGARDING HER

TERMINATION

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) has refused to renew the membership of one of its woman members, Rukhsana Nikhat Lari, for opposing triple ‘talaq’ (divorce) in one sitting.

“The decision was taken at a meeting in Kolkata in November last year,” said Zafaryab Jilani, secretary of the Board. “She was invited to attend the session. But since her three-year term had come to an end, the board did not renew her membership.”

He said the AIMPLB had 101 permanent and around 150 term members, who are elected every three years on the recommendation of the permanent members.

Asked whether all the term members were replaced every three years, Jilani said the decision on renewal of membership and retaining a particular member was the prerogative of permanent members.“The board has renewed terms of several members but it is done on a case-tocase basis,” he said.

Rukhsana Lari is a former principal of a girls’ degree college in Lucknow. When contacted, she said she had not received any communication from the Board regarding her termination.“The board does not send any formal communication to members whose membership comes to an end,” Jilani said.

Rukhsana Lari first locked horns with the clergy on triple talaq at a seminar in Lucknow in June 2016. She was subsequently not allowed to speak at the press conference after the event. “If something is wrong, let us admit it and not live in denial simply because PM Narendra Modi has said it is wrong,” she said.

“I am not saying this to please anyone. One has to put the record straight in the light of the Quran,” said Lari, a member of the board since the 1990s. On April 13, the AIMPLB submitted over 48 million signatures along with a petition to the Law Commission, objecting to a uniform civil code.