Twitter users demolish the idea that Triple Talaq Bill will help Muslim women. Here’s how

By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter

The Muslim Women (Protection Of Rights On Marriage) Bill, 2017, also known as the Triple Talaq Bill, has been presented and passed in the Lok Sabha. For the BJP, this Bill is an attempt to show that the party and the NDA cares for the life of Muslim women. In fact, the Bill seeks to “protect the rights of married Muslim women and to prohibit divorce by pronouncing talaq by their husbands and to provide for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.” However, soon after the Bill was passed, common citizens and experts have rightly pointed out how this Bill is nothing but another attempt to criminalise Muslim men.

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In fact, one of the most convincing arguments which exposes the nature of the Bill was presented by  Twitter user Alok Kumar. In a series of tweets, Kumar dismantled the theory that the Bill would protect Muslim woman.

“The first, fundamental problem with this law is that it is doing two contradictory things: declaring instant triple talaq void (as already declared by the SC) and imposing criminal penalty on someone for it,” Kumar pointed out in a tweet. He was referring to the fact that earlier this year, the Supreme Court had declared ‘Talaq-e-bidat’ as void.

Kumar went on to add, “ITT (Instant Triple Talaq) has no legal effect but someone pronouncing it will be punished with imprisonment (upto 3 years) and a fine. Here’s the thing: He’ll still be her husband. He’s still supposed to maintain his wife. But he can’t because he’s in jail. Who does this help?”

In fact, the same point was raised by various Twitter users: how can a man, who is in jail for an offence that is technically not an offence (as pointed out by Supreme Court) provide for his wife when he earns Rs 25 a day in jail? To make matters worse, as Kumar points out, “The offence is cognizable and non-bailable. Which means it does not need a complaint by the wife or anyone for the cops to arrest or investigate a Muslim man,” Kumar pointed out in his series of Tweets.

“Almost all the provisions of this law are entirely superfluous or plainly unconstitutional. It helps no one but gives the police one more law to harass Muslim men with,” Kumar added.

Interestingly, as Kumar pointed out, “It is incredible that a law just seven sections long manages to violate Articles 14, 19 *and* 21 of the Constitution”.

Writing for the Hindu, A Faizur Rahman points out that Sections 3,4 and 7 “amounts to a gross misreading of the August 2017 Supreme Court judgment which neutralised the legal effect of instant talaq and rendered it bad in law. In other words, the pronouncement of talaq-e-bidat does not dissolve the marriage, and this is the law of the land under Article 141.”

Another Twitter user, Nandita Saikia, said, “You don’t want to criminalise marital rape partly coz “If the dude’s jailed, who’ll support his family? You’re totally ok with jailing a man for shooting his mouth off by saying nothing with legal validity, never mind how he’ll support his family.”

Saikia went on to add, “If jailing men for being mean even when their words have no legal consequences is marvellous and speaks to women’s empowerment, why can’t we extend the joy to Hindu women? Indefensible classification, no, to exclude them?”

“The #TripleTalaqBill doesn’t protect women or their finances. Men in gaol likely can’t support them from there. It facilitates every available busybody from anywhere interfering & disrupting the lives of women & ors. Def not what women need esp if anyway married to oddities,” Saikia said.

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