India’s Supreme Court takes stand against ‘instant divorce’ method for Muslim men
NEW DELHI — India’s highest court struck down a legal provision Tuesday that allowed Muslim men to instantly divorce their wives, taking a stand against a practice increasingly deemed unacceptable in the Muslim world.
In India, Muslim men have been able to end their marriages by saying the word “talaq” — Arabic for divorce — three times. They could do this in person, by letter or even over the phone. By contrast, a Muslim woman in India seeking a divorce must generally gain the permission of her husband, a cleric or other Islamic authorities.
All-male panel split 3-2
The method of divorce was available only to men, who in many cases ousted their wives from their homes without alimony or other financial support. The practice is frowned on by many Muslims worldwide, and the case was being closely watched in India.
On Tuesday, by a 3-2 vote, a Supreme Court panel declared the provision that had allowed for Muslims’ instant divorce unlawful. Of those who voted against, two said the practice was unconstitutional and one said it went against Islamic law.
One of the dissenters was a Muslim judge; the other was the court’s chief justice, who urged Parliament to come up with a new provision.
The Muslim women plaintiffs had argued that the provision violated their fundamental right to equality under the constitution. And while India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, hailed the court decision as a “powerful measure for women’s empowerment,” some legal analysts were not so sure, saying the all-male panel had used language that was quite degrading toward women.
“The patronizing tone towards Muslim women in all the opinions is quite breathtaking,” Ratna Kapur, a law professor and author of a forthcoming book on gender and human rights, wrote on Facebook. “Women are talked about as if they are in need of protection, not in terms of their rights.”
She added, “Nearly every reference to the Muslim woman in the majority and dissenting opinions reduces Muslim women to ‘suffering victims.’”
India is predominantly Hindu, but it has a sizable Muslim population. Many Hindus, seeing the practice of ending a marriage by uttering three words as an insult to women, welcomed the decision Tuesday. Several Muslim groups, however, had been intent on preserving it, suspicious of any government efforts to chip away at what they see as their fundamental religious rights.
Quran makes no mention of it
There are no official statistics on the prevalence of instant divorce in India, but one study found that among a sample of more than 4,700 women, 525 had divorced, 404 of them through triple talaq.
The Quran makes no mention of the talaq method. The practice is outlined in the hadiths, or sayings attributed to the Prophet Muhammad, which are regarded as less authoritative than the Quran but are influential in shaping Islamic doctrine.
Ishrat Jahan, a plaintiff in the Indian case, said she had been crushed when her husband divorced her over the phone from Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.
“Then he remarried in the village and snatched my children from me,” she said in a television interview.
She said she was extremely happy with the court decision.
“I never thought this would happen,” she said.