Triple talaq

Triple talaq and the Indian Muslim Women and Men.

Islam in today’s world comes across as a backward religion, however, at one point when it appeared, it was considered as the progressive force. Well, what was once progressive in the 6th century is not having the same effect in the 21st century. The proof of which is the laws regarding the Muslim marriages and divorces, where the Muslim women are always at the receiving end of the bad news.

One of the upsetting sticking points in the contemporary world is the status that the Muslim women are given, it is disturbing that they are subjected to the archaic laws and there is little to nothing that can be done about it.

As of recent, the Muslim Law Board in India has sanctified the triple talaq, i.e. the divorce by uttering the word talaq just three times to break off the marriage.

The fact is that in India more than 93% of the Muslim women want the triple talaq to be completely abolished but the Muslim Law Board that is dominated by men who are still somehow managing to time travel and live in the 6th century are nowhere close to accepting the plea to abolish the triple talaq.

In the ruling on 2nd of September, 2017, the Law Board has upheld the triple talaq’s validity to the dismay of millions of Muslim women. It was, however, an accepted decision, keeping in mind that the mindset of the Muslim men steeps in obscurantism.

This is one of the dark aspects of Islam and it has long been thought about how the women in Islam can continue to live under such sexist laws that also include the liberty for men to have 4 wives.

The women are now raising their voice in India about how Islam should alter its laws and be more gender sensitive. It is, in fact, hard to believe that even in the modern era, there exists such laws that favor only men at the expense of the emotions and lives of the other sex.

Even though brave women like Taslima Sharif have raised their voices for equality and  have also asked for the holy book Quran to be revised, which can be viewed as an extreme step to take keeping in mind the backward ideologies of the Islam. However, it is sad to say that her bravado for having the Quran revised was met with a negative outcome and the Muslim clerics passed a fatwa against her, asking her to be beheaded. As a result of which she had to escape to Bangladesh and is now residing in India.

The act of banning the triple talaq by the Supreme Court of India in August 2017 has been seen as a great victory for the Muslim women but they still have a long way to go in achieving the equal status as men in their community, starting with educating girls and not just viewing them as child-bearing machines, only meant for the pleasure of men.

It is about time that the Muslim Law Board is told or better yet educated about the trends in the world that we live in and they should learn from Turkey, a progressive Islamic country of the modern world because even when the Ottoman Empire was at its peak, triple talaq was not a part of the law.