Trapped By Triple Talaq

A survey reveals that a huge majority of Muslim women in India want to see the end of the unilateral oral divorce and other such injustices of the religions personal laws.

- Madhavankutty Pillai

She is 25 years old and it has been five years since her marriage. At her in-laws, they would beat her regularly, make her work like a slave and keep asking for dowry. A year back, her husband’s father came home, thrashed him and told him that he must divorce her. She says before asking her to leave, her husband said ‘talaq’ to her twice. You suspect that is not true. Three is the number that severs the link. Twice gives her an opening to claim the marriage is technically still on. He has not asked her to return since then. She says they blame her for the divorce. She took her two babies when she was forced to go. Without any means of support, she waited impatiently for a call back that never came. She then filed a police complaint against them for domestic violence. Now that she has filed the case, her husband says there is no room for reconciliation. This is not an unusual story, the only difference being that her father-in-law is a reputed Muslim cleric in Bhopal. “He should know that divorce cannot happen like this,” she says. “There is a procedure that the Qur’an specifies. He knows the Qur’an inside out and still he has gone ahead and done this to me. And if someone with so much knowledge can do it, then why won’t ordinary people?”