How Triple Talaq Law has done more harm than good to Indian Muslim women

The Triple Talaq Law which was enforced by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government 3 years ago on August 1, 2019 has left many Muslim women ‘hanging’. Since the law classifies that giving ‘instant divorce’ by Muslim men to their wives as a criminal offence, many husbands who are making the life of their wives “intolerable” are neither divorcing their wives nor keeping the wives with them.

The Quint in its report ‘3 Years of Triple Talaq Law: How It Has Left Many Muslim Women Abandoned’ has talked to several Muslim women who are left in the lurch.

The report states, “‘Latka ke chhoda hua hai’ or ‘he has left me hanging’, is a common lament among several women at the Shaheen Women’s Resource and Welfare Association—a centre in Telangana’s Hyderabad which has been working for the victims of Triple Talaq for decades.”

The report adds, “Except in the three years since the parliament passed the law, the women’s help centre hardly ever gets complaints of women being subject to Triple Talaq. Instead, all they get are grievances and appeals from hapless Muslim women who have been deserted by their husbands. The criminalisation of the Triple Talaq has given rise to a new problem: abandonment.”

In order to circumvent the Triple Talaq law, husbands are simply cutting off all ties with the wife and not officially giving her a divorce leaving several women in a limbo.

The report has quoted Jameela Nishat, who has been running the Shaheen Women help centre since 2002, as saying that the criminalisation of Triple Talaq has done more harm than good for many Muslim women. She is further quoted as saying “The criminalization and the enactment of the Triple Talaq Law was publicised so much that today every single Muslim man knows he shouldn’t utter the word ‘talaq’. Of course, there are other routes to get a divorce, but there is such fear among them now, that they are simply thinking why should they get involved in this mess. Abandoning the wife seems like a far easier option.”

Shaheen Women’s Resource and Welfare Association has been working overtime to get abandoned Muslim women some sort of rehabilitation. The number of abandonment cases has increased since the Triple Talaq criminalisation.

In cases where the man isn’t giving Talaq, but the woman wants divorce, the option of ‘khula’ is available under Islamic law or Shariah—wherein the wife can initiate the divorce. But that has also become a difficult process as that also requires husband’s consent. Oppressed wives are stuck for life now.

The report further observes, “At the heart of many of these conflicts is also the question of money and sustenance. Mehr is a pre-decided amount of money supposed to be given by the husband to the wife on getting married. In the case of a Talaq, the husband must give mehr as well as maintenance for the iddat period (three months after divorce).” But since the husband’s are not giving talaq they are not binding to give mehr and maintenance also.

Women who have been abandoned without a divorce, cannot marry anyone else either.

The Quint has quoted Zakia Soman, founder of the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA) which was one of the petitioners in the SC case which eventually led to the ban on the Triple Talaq, as saying, “Even after criminalisation, most police stations across the country don’t want to file a case under the law. The woman has to run from pillar to post to get a case registered. This is because the whole system is patriarchal.”

The BJP-government has marked 1 August as ‘Muslim Women Empowerment Day’ to mark the date the Triple Talaq law was enacted. Soman however termed it as an eyewash. The report stated.

“The Muslim family laws need to be revamped and made properly gender-just, in accordance with the Quranic injunctions of equality, which are also in line with our constitutional principles of justice,” the report quoted Zakia Soman as saying.