Muslim men support demand for abolition of triple talaq, nikaah-halala practices
Dear Friends,
As you are aware,
Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA) has collected 50,000
signatures as part of their campaign demanding an end to triple talaq and
nikaah-halala. Rattled by this development, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board have
resorted to accusing BMMA of being RSS/VHP agents and worse.
I believe as progressive Muslim men we owe it to ourselves to stand by BMMA and support their campaign. A proposed statement with an initial list of signatories from Mumbai is pasted at the end of this message and is also attached.
We request you to endorse the statement/contact Muslim men within your circle of family, friends, colleagues and comrades and urge them to endorse the same. What we need is the name of the signatory and his professional background: (Student, teacher, doctor, lawyer, etc ). In the press release, the full list of signatories will appear in alphabetical order.
Since we are planning
to issue the press statement on Monday afternoon, to speed up the process of
getting signatories, we suggest the following options:
1. Send a message to
Javed Anand saying, 'I endorse the campaign for abolition of triple talaq and
nikaah-halala practices'.
2. Send a message to
Javed Anand saying, 'I have spoken to the following persons who fully endorse
the statement'. (Please list the names).
Thanks,
Javed Anand
Javed Anand
<javedanand@gmail.com>
***************
Muslim men support
demand for abolition of triple talaq and nikaah-halala
We, the undersigned,
believe that gender equality and justice are human rights issues which must be
as much a matter of concern for men as for women. If anything, it is more so
men’s obligation to cry a halt to patriarchy, particularly when it is sought to
be perpetuated in the name of God.
We therefore fully
support the campaign launched by the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA) for
the abolition, and declaration as illegal, of the current practices of triple talaq (instant
divorce) and nikaah-halala in India. We salute BMMA for
its initiative in collecting 50,000 signatures from across the country in
support of their demand.
While the triple talaq method
of instant divorce is today banned in more than 21 Muslim majority countries,
including Pakistan, it continues to be justified by the ulema in
India as legally valid, even though theologically repugnant.
We categorically
reject the false claim of the ulema that what goes in the name
of Muslim Personal Law in India is a “God-given” law. As BMMA has rightly
pointed out, there is no mention of the inhuman, unjust and anti-women instant talaq practice
in the Quran. In fact, the Quran clearly stipulates an obligatory three-month
period during which attempts must be made at reconciliation and mediation
before severing of the marital bond.
Equally, triple talaq violates
the Constitutional principles of gender parity and non-discrimination. Thus
this obnoxious practice is both un-Quranic and un-Constitutional.
The ulema who
proudly proclaim that Islam is the first religion to have given rights to women
are duty bound to ensure justice to women. We bemoan the fact that instead of
doing so they continue to justify the Muslim male’s privilege of unilateral and
instant divorce, often on a mere whim or fit of anger.
As for nikaah-halala, it
is a shameful practice which is extremely degrading for women. Even if a
husband utters the dread words ‘talaq, talaq, talaq’ in a fit of
anger but regrets the same immediately thereafter, according to the ulema there
is only one way for the couple to resume their relationship. Another man must
marry the divorced woman, consummate the marriage and then divorce her so that
she may remarry her former husband. BMMA has even documented some cases where qazis not
only justify and legitimise nikaah-halala, but even offer their own
“services” as temporary husbands. What could be more disgraceful than this?
The least we expect
from the ulema who have proved themselves unwilling and
incapable of ending the shameful, anti-women practices of instant divorce and nikaah-halala is
to stop perpetuating patriarchy in the name of religion.
The word ulema is
supposed to mean a body of Muslim scholars who are recognized as having
specialist knowledge of Islamic sacred law and theology. We demand that the ulema in
India to live up to that definition. They must stop making a mockery of their
honorific, stop demonising Islam in the process.
Signatories in
alphabetical order:
Anjum Rajabali (Screen
Writer)
Anwar Hussain:
Corporate Executive
Aamir:Communication
designer
Feroze Khan: Theatre
director
Feroze Mithiborwala:
Activist,
Hasan Kamaal: Senior
journalist, poet, lyricist
Irfan Engineer:
Activist,
Javed Anand: Activist,
journalist
Javed
Siddiqi:Screen/dialogue writer, playwright
Kader Qazi: Creative
director
Saeed Mirza:
Film-maker
Rahman Abbas: Fiction
Writer
see also
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