Every jurist and academician has been discussing and debating over the issue of triple talaq and Uniform Civil Code this week. All India Muslim Personal Law Board says that triple talaq is an intrinsic provision of Islamic Jurisprudence and the attack on this provision is a Hindu conspiracy of BJP. The opponents have questioned it on humanitarian and constitutional grounds.
Quran is a primary source of Islamic jurisprudence. But Quran nowhere validates the practice of instant divorce. Prophet himself was a strong advocate of women’s rights, as a matter of fact, and condemned such practices.
In spite of that, conservative Muslims continue to defend triple talaq. While a man can easily forego his responsibilities but just uttering the word ‘talaq’ thrice, a woman has to undergo immense hardships. Such instantaneous divorces are even given by men over phone, SMS and via facebook statuses. There have even been instances when men pronounced ‘talaq’ thrice even when their wives weren’t present. Imagine the shock of returning to your own home after finishing up daily chores and finding out that your husband has divorced you without giving you any reason and you have been rendered homeless and defenseless!
Article 44 of our Constitution provides of a uniform civil code that would govern all citizens if the country. But that is just on paper. In reality, we continue to be governed by a number of personal laws, each religion having its own law. So much so that, even an atheist, who does not believe in any religion, is governed by the law of the religion he was born in, rendering his absence of faith unimportant.
And triple talaq is not the only gender biased practice. There are a number of practices in Hindu Law and Christian too, those are detrimental to the status of women. But no party has questioned those practices as of now. Yes, the ever present political power play!
The question before us is- when are we going to look beyond our vision that has been limited by religion and politics and look at the suffering of our women who are deprived of their most basic rights that even the Constitution so adamantly enforces?
The way to achieve UCC is long. Meanwhile, we need to know that twenty two Islamic countries have banned triple talaq, including Pakistan, yes Pakistan! The grounds are simple- it is inhuman and unconstitutional, and definitely un-Quranic. It is high time India did the same.
