By TCN News
New Delhi: A group of 225 Muslim men from across the country have come out in support of the demand for abolition of triple talaq and nikaah-halala as practiced in India.
Academics, social activists, entrepreneurs, lawyers, and past and present government officials, under the aegis of Muslim Men for Gender Justice, said in a press release, “We 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) and other Muslim organisations and individuals for the abolition, and declaration as illegal, of triple talaq (instant divorce) and nikaah- halala as being practiced in India,” the release added.
The group also categorically rejected 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,” the release said.
Pointing out that the triple talaq also olates the Constitutional principles of gender parity, the group said, “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…We demand that the ulema in India live up to that definition. They must stop making
a mockery of their honorific and demonising Islam in the process,” the group added.