Muslims must share the blame for their situation
We would not need the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill if we’d stuck to the spirit of Islam
The government’s decision to introduce the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill in the Lok Sabha today poses a challenge to the Muslim community. As an example of its disregard for the community most affected, the minister of state for law and justice has said that in framing this law, no Muslim groups had been consulted.
The Koranic provision on talaq is clear. In Islam, there is no concept of reincarnation. To enjoy the gift of this life, the provision of graceful separation is provided in case marriage becomes intolerable for either party. Hence the concept of talaq and khula. The man is given a way out through the provision of talaq and the woman through the right of khula. The balance is perfect and explained with precision in the Koran.
In pre-Islamic Arabia, when the Koran was revealed 1,437 years ago, girl children were buried at birth. In these circumstances, came a man who revealed Allah’s word that women were equal to men in every way. That they were free agents with rights in marriage, divorce, property and income. In a society where men contracted scores of marriages the Koran said ‘enough’. No more than four but added a next sentence for men. ‘Since you are generally incapable of dispensing equal justice to four, one is enough.’
When I wrote the first ever report on the status of Muslim women in India in 2000, I warned that unless the Maulanas and Alims direct the community to practise Islam in the light of the basic tenets of the Koran and abjure the abhorrent practices of triple talaq and multiple marriages, they would regret it.
So now we have a proposed law which criminalises triple talaq as a cognisable non-bailable offence with a three- year jail term and a fine. Women’s groups who had joined hands with aggrieved women like Shayara Bano are today pulling in different directions. ‘Too harsh a punishment’ says one group ‘because it gives a free hand to the police to terrorise Muslim youth and throw them in jail leaving the broken family to fend for itself’. ‘Harsh punishment is most important as a deterrent’, says the other group ‘because it will stop Muslim men from keeping their wives under the sword of Damocles’. One suggestion being made is to treat triple talaq as violence against women and bring it under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence (PWDV) Act. Both ways, the woman remains a victim and not an arbiter of her fate as was intended by Koranic injunction.
For the situation in which Muslims find themselves, they have only themselves to blame. We we can prevent future damage by reverting to spirit of Islam and not distort it through biased interpretations.