-Noor
Zaheer
Every
time Triple Talaq is discussed, talked about or analyzed two questions
invariably crop up. One, that data shows there is a higher percentage of
divorce happening among Hindus than Muslims and the other being that the demand
for doing away with instantaneous triple talaq does not address the short
comings of the woman who might be responsible for putting the man in such a
situation that he is forced to divorce her.
Both
views are inter-related. The demand is for abolishing instant talaq and not
talaq per se. The women are not raising a moral issue whether talaq should be
in existence or not; nor are they saying that marriages once contracted should
never be dissolved. Islam accepts that marriage is a contract between two
people and the desire to end the contract is neither immoral nor illegal. It is
the one sided authority and the vulgar haste by which the end is brought about
which is being contested.
The
view that a woman conducts herself in such a way that a man is forced to
divorce her puts the entire responsibility of being divorced on the woman.
Accepting that this might be the case one can still demand that a procedure
should be followed, the woman given enough notice to contest and put across her
side of the story; a right which is totally denied in the case of instantaneous
triple talaq which leaves no room for the man to back track, review or resume
the relationship.
It
is this instantaneous Triple Talaq against which Shayara Bano had filed a
petition on which the honorable Supreme Court has pronounced its decision and
it has gone in favour of Muslim women.
