The Supreme Court, in a
landmark decision, banned instant triple talaq or talaq-e-biddat terming it
unconstitutional. It's a big step given the menace the instant practice of
triple talaq had become. If we see the suppoting data divorce trend in the
Muslim community, we can see the overarching shadow of instant triple talaq.
Almost 80 per cent divorced
among the Indian Muslims are women, i.e., four divorced Muslim women for every
divorced Muslim man, IndiaSpend reports. And most of them were divorced orally
- almost 66 per cent of them. 7.6 per cent were sent letters by their husbands
proclaiming divorce while 3.4 per cent were given the shock of their life over
phone, the data available shows. Around 1 per cent of Muslim men also used SMS
and email to reveal their designs.
And 95 per cent of these
arbitrarily divorced women don't get any compensation or maintenance from their
husbands, a survey by the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA) reveals.
Though some reports have questioned contradictions in different BMMA studies,
the cause of triple talaq is genuine one and we can quote BMMA reports to support
arguments here.
But even if the SC decision banning
instant triple talaq is historical and precedent setting, it will not help
Muslim women much till their pathetic condition in the Muslim community is
addressed; till triple talaq is totally abolished and like other religious
communities, the Muslim divorce is also subjected mandatorily to the laws of
the land; and till polygamy in the Muslim community is banned and it is placed
under the Uniform Civil Code not allowing more than one marriage.
According to the Census 2011,
almost 81 per cent of Muslim women are married by 21. So most of them are
devoid of higher education that can ensure independent, professional career. If
we split this 81 per cent further, it reveals a scenario that is even more
horrible - 62.5 per cent of Muslim women are married by the age of 19 - an
age-group for school goers mostly.
With 13.5 per cent Muslim girls
married before 15, we are staring at a social anathema where more than 50 per
cent Muslim girls are forced in
under-age marriages, as if they are raised only for this exclusive purpose,
i.e., get married, become a house wife and spend the whole life under the
threat of a husband who can divorce you at mere his whim. The whole Muslim
community is responsible for systematically killing aspirations of Muslim women
through this vicious cycle.
Something, that reflects in
poor representation of Muslim women in workforce. In 2001, there were just 14.1
per cent Muslim women doing some kind of job which only marginally rose to 14.8
per cent in the Census 2011.
And why it would not be so.
Almost half of Muslim women are still illiterate. A study by the Indian
Institute of Public Administration quoting 2007-08 NSSO data found that there
were just 1.5 per cent Muslim women who
possessed qualification above higher secondary while majority of them were upper
primary educated (around 42 per cent). And there is not much to console even
after a decade of this data.
So, they are methodically made
handicapped so that they cannot make their life and career on their own and
when this discrimination meets the archaic, exploitative mindset of the Patriarchal
Muslim community which prides in nurturing anti women practices like triple
talaq, they are finally pushed to a life of no existence.
The apex court has banned
instant triple talaq but Muslim man can still say talaq, talaq, talaq spread
over three months and his wife cannot go to a court against it. The prevailing
Muslim law doesn't allow her. Banning instant triple talaq may help in cases of
impulsive decisions but what about decisions that reek of designs in making?
Muslim men, free from the
fear of legal tentacles, will still use their arbitrary might in throwing
Muslim women out of their lives if they have decided. The only solution to this
is the legal dissolution of Muslim marriages with court driven legal mandates,
like happens in other communities.
Polygamy in the Muslim
community adds another worrying dimension to it. Suppose the community, through
social interventions and pressure, reforms it to the extent that Muslim men
start avoiding divorcing their wives through the triple talaq route.
But what about the inherent countermove
it involves. As a Muslim man is allowed to practice polygamy, i.e., having more
than one wife, he will simply ignore the wife whom he wanted to divorce through
triple talaq and can very well go his other wife (wives) that will make the
life of the woman even more miserable.
She cannot go to social institutions.
She cannot go to courts. And as she has not been divorced yet by her husband, even
if her married life has already been broken, she will find it difficult to
reach out even to her immediate family.
©SantoshChaubey
