[SAAPE Network] Triple Talaq Verdict: Zakia Soman's 11 year old fight against patriarchy
Priti Darooka
Via SAAPE
From: sa...@googlegroups.com
[mailto:sa...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Shobha Raghuram
Sent: Wednesday, August 23, 2017 4:44 PM
To: sa...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [SAAPE Network] Triple Talaq Verdict: Zakia Soman's 11 year old
fight against patriarchy
Dear Zakia,
WE, members of SAAPE honour the work of the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, yourself and all the women who were petitioners in this case for keeping up the long years of struggle to arrive at this historic verdict. Millions of women have known the suffering of being cast out of their homes at midnight, dispossessed and dishonored. There are still many more battles to be fought and this verdict like many others is just another beginning as you have rightly said. We honour today the personal battles fought by women of all religions, all kinds of patriarchies, all kinds of economic hardships and inequalities in the social strata. Religious faiths can only illuminate the personal if they need to be followed and they should be by personal choice. When they are manipulated to expand the power bases of some they need to be critiqued and not allowed to enter our lives.
Zakia, you are a valued CC member of SAAPE. We hope that we will have the opportunity to hear you and learn from your experiences as to how such struggles in many other spheres need to be waged.
More courage and all our greetings on this occasion,
Shobha
Ps. I am enclosing below press coverage of your interviews for SAAPE readers.
Triple Talaq Verdict: Zakia Soman's 11 year old fight against patriarchy
By Lakshmi Iyer, Mumbai Mirror | Updated: Aug 23, 2017, 12.19 PM IST
The SC's triple talaq verdict is a small victory for
Zakia Soman, whose Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan is one of the six
petitioners in the case, but a lot more still needs to be done.
IN NEW DELHI When the Supreme Court struck down the controversial practice
of triple talaq, calling it void, unconstitutional and un-Islamic on Tuesday,
Zakia Soman saw her 11 years of hard toil bearing fruit. Bharatiya Muslim
Mahila Andolan, which Soman founded, was one of the petitioners in the case,
along with five other women — Shayara Bano, Ishrat Jahan, Gulshan Parween,
Aafreen Rehman and Atiya Sabri.
Soman, on her part, is one of the early fighters against the practice of triple
talaq in the Muslim community and had organised the women of her community and
brought them under one banner — Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan — to fight
against the practice.
Today, she stands vindicated, but she believes that more needs to be done.
"Legal change alone is not enough.
There is a lot more that needs to be done. We have to educate the girls of our
community above 14 years about their rights. We now expect a lot of people to
join us," Soman told Mirror.
At the same time, she conceded that it was the government's affidavit upholding
Constitutional values that went a long way in helping their cause. She is not
sure if any other government would have done so. After all, Prime Minister Modi
had himself vowed to do away with the practice of triple talaq in his
Independence Day address.
A former Gujarat University professor, Soman lives in Ahmedabad and Delhi with
her second husband Soman Nambaiar and her son. She says she was moved to take
up the battle because of her own experience of staying in an abusive first
marriage for 16 years.
"That pushed me to work for Muslim women, made me realise that we too have
rights as citizens and must stake claim to it. My first marriage was very
abusive and it ended in 2003. I was struggling with my life and I realised that
we had to fight patriarchy," she said.
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Narrating her ordeal, she went on, "My son was very young then and he bore
the brunt of it. I got married the second time to a non-Muslim in 2008. The
personal law board keeps pointing out how I am married to a non-Muslim, but
where were they when I was suffering?"
She said she was able to connect and bond with women facing a similar fate when
they came together for the first time in Delhi in January 2007. "We were
only 500 of us then," she recalled.
That group evolved into a movement as the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan collected
50,000 signatures of women across 10 states.
What kind of reaction does she expect from the Muslim men now? Will they accept
the apex court's verdict? "There is only a small section of the society
that is conservative, dominant and opposed to the verdict. Times are changing
now. Even families are coming out against triple talaq. Talaq is not something
that just happens between a husband and wife. Every wife is someone's
daughter," she said.
Citing the famous Shah Bano case, who had dragged her advocate husband to court
for maintenance in 1985, she said, "Shah Bano fought for maintenance that
she was entitled to under the tenets of Quran. Today, it is no longer one
woman's voice, there are many more voices, which are more informed and determined
now. Today, the women also know the religion, we also understand we are not
going to go by your fake interpretation of Quran. We have not accepted personal
law board's version of the Quran. In my petition, I have quoted Quranic
verses," she added.
She went on to say how their religion is not rocket science and it should be
accepted and understood that men and women are equal.
"The time and context when the Quran was read 1400 years ago was different
from today's. Today, men and women are equal with equal opportunities. These
religious leaders have deliberately twisted and given multiple meaning and
interpretations to the context for their own benefit. You and I are not
scholars of religion. But then religion is not meant for scholars alone,"
she added.
Soman is also convinced that the All India Muslim Personal Law Board will soon
become redundant.
"We don't trust them. They have been denying rights granted by the Quran
and the Constitution to the Muslim women. If it was indeed relevant, women
would not have felt the need to move court," she added.
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Verdict on triple talaq late by 70 years says Zakia Soman
Written By: Shreya Sinha
Updated: Wednesday, August 23, 2017, 11:48 [IST]
Subscribe to Oneindia News
In a historic judgment the Supreme Court of India on August 22, 2017, by a majority of 3:2, granted a massive relief to Muslim women in the country by striking down Triple Talaq - in one sitting.
Read | Follow OneIndia's exhaustive coverage on triple talaq here:
The Apex Court called the practice a violation of Article 14 of the Constitution, which ensures every citizen equality before the law and also held the practice against the teaching of Islam.
Zakia Soman. Photo credit: feminisminindia.com
Zakia Soman, Founding Member of Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, one of the petitioners in the fight against instant Triple Talaq, said to OneIndia, "It is a historic judgment; we have worked very hard for this."
"This is a victory for all the Indian women who have struggled really hard for this day," she added.
When asked if this should have happened much earlier, she said, "Yes, we are late by 70 years."
The Supreme Court's judgment is being hailed as one of the most crucial and progressive steps towards women empowerment, which restores power to women to defend their rights.
Prior to this, women were victimised by the regressive practice of Triple Talaq, in which the husband could divorce the wife arbitrarily.
Several women in the past have been divorced over phones, emails, speed posts and WhatsApp messages and because the practice did not allow women to defend their rights, these women were left to fend for themselves.
Women's rights activists around the country are elated with this judgement, Trupti Desai, Women's Rights activist, told OneIndia, "The practice of instant triple talaq had been a matter of immense pain and worry in the life of Muslim women, and today after the Supreme Court's judgement, Muslim women across the country can live without the fear of abandonment."
She further added that no party should oppose to this ruling as it's a unanimous demand of women for justice and there is no religious discrimination about it.
However, Shehzaad Poonawalla, Secretary, Maharashtra Congress, though welcomed the judgment, questioned if it was driven by the motive of ensuring equal rights to women or has a hidden political agenda.
He said, "I welcome the Supreme Court verdict because triple talaq in one sitting has no sanctions in Islam and Quran, but I would also like to ask the PM why he is not looking into Khap Panchayats, which is equally regressive?"
Refuting Poonawala's statements, RSS ideologue Ratan Sharda, while speaking to OneIndia said, "If someone has a problem with something, he or she should move the court and not continue with making vague comments."
Supporting the Supreme Court verdict Ratan Sharda said, "This is a landmark judgement by the Supreme Court in favour of women's rights."
BJP Spokesperson Shazia Ilmi, who had been fighting for the cause called
Supreme Court's verdict "the dawn of Azaadi for our Muslim sisters, who
for so long have lived their life under the perpetual fear of
abandonment."
She said, "This is the first time minorities, within the minorities, have been had been served justice, the hope and happiness of Muslim women have been restored."
Reiterating Ilmi's thoughts BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma said, "We really welcome this historic judgment which marks the end of an age old regressive practice, and people who are questioning this should get their priorities in place,"
Bombay High Court Lawyer and Activist Abha Singh also welcomed the move and called it a "Brilliant Judgement." She said, "Today's judgment helped establish the true democracy that we are.
She added, 'Triple talaq is a religious practice and the Supreme Court recognised equality before religious practice today,"
Women's Rights Activists Ranjana Kumari also spoke to OneIndia and said, "We have supported this cause for a long time and welcome the Supreme Court's judgment to end discrimination, the Supreme Court has today established the supremacy of the Constitution."
While the Apex Court has struck down instant triple talaq, it has also asked the Government to form a new legislation within 6 months to govern marriage and divorce.
Dr. Shobha Raghuram,
Development Policies Consultant.
Civil society, International Public Policy,
Ethics.
&
Independent Researcher,
Development Studies and Philosophy.
Social Justice and Public Policy.
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On 23 August 2017 at 12:55, Gauri Pradhan <gprad...@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear Shobha,
Thank you very much for sharing the verdict of SC India on triple Talak. I have gone through the news published yesterday in international media. Its a landmark verdict I think and would like to congratulate the SC of India and to all who have been fighting against such inequality and injustice for years. I will go through the verdict to learn if there is any penalty if any husband says three times talak to her wife for the divorce. Probably the government is going to make a bill to effectively enforce the decision in action.
Thank you,
GPR
_______________________________________________
Gauri Pradhan
International Coordinator, LDC Watch
(Former Member of National Human Rights Commission, Nepal)
International Secretariat
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On 23 August 2017 at 10:47, Shobha Raghuram <srdevelopme...@gmail.com> wrote:
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