Against extraordinary odds, these women decided to stand up and speak out against oppression
For the diminutive Shayara Bano, Tuesday was a day that would be etched in her memory forever, irrespective of which way it would have ended. But when the 5-member constitutional bench at the Supreme Court voted to set aside triple talaq, the 39-year-old heaved a sigh of relief. “The first thing that crossed my mind was that I will now be able to meet my children,” said the soft-spoken Shayara. Ever since her husband, Allahabad-based property dealer Rizwan Ahmed, sent her a letter with ‘talaq’ written on it twice while she was at her mother’s place, she has not met her two children, Irfan, 14, and Muskan, 13.
Shayara, a resident of Kashipur, was married off to Rizwan in 2002. Theirs was a marriage that brought about unspeakable horrors for her. Dowry demands and torture was routine. “I don’t remember the number of abortions that I had to undergo,” she says.
In fact, when Rizwan sent her the letter to Shayara’s father on the pretext of sending some property letters, she was recuperating from the string of abortions. Her brother, Arshad, says that for the longest time, she spoke little. When she was back on her feet, it was Arshad who asked her to pick up the fight.
And on Tuesday, he was there standing by her side, taking her to the Supreme Court and to the several news studios thereafter.
Shayara says that when she moved the Supreme Court to challenge triple talaq, she knew that the fight that lay ahead will help several other Muslim women more than her. In her petition, Shayara also sought to outlaw the concept of nikah-halala and of polygamy.
When the judgement was finally pronounced, Shayara said: “I have been waiting for this verdict for a long time, and I’m happy that this will affect the lives of the thousands of Muslim women in the country.”
Mumbai-based Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA) has filed a petition titled ‘Muslim Women’s Quest for Equality’. Insisting on the equality of men and women in the faith, Zakia Soman of the BMMA said, “The historic judgment is a step forward in our struggle for gender justice. It is a victory for Indian women.”
Raees Ahmad, brother of another petitioner Gulshan Parveen, said, “We are happy that after the judgement our sister can go back to her husband. Their two-and-a-half-year-old child will no longer be confused about his life.”
“If one looks at the remarks of the judges, we will see that the two judges who held back agreed to the fact that triple talaq is deprecable,” said advocate Divyesh Pratap Singh, counsel of petitioner Aafreen Rehman.
Petitioner Ishrat Jahan said, “I will continue my struggle for justice until I get maintenance for myself and my kids by my husband.”
Hamid Dalwai, the rights’ pioneer from the Sixties
Social reformist Hamid Dalwai hit the headlines after he along with seven Muslim women took out a morcha at Mantralaya on April 18, 1966 to protest triple talaq, polygamy, halala and gender injustice at large.
Dalwai decided to hit the streets notwithstanding opposition from several Muslim leaders and organisations. They shouted slogans like ‘Zubani talaq band karo’.
In a memorandum to the then CM Vasantrao Naik, Hamid Dalwai led the delegation demanded that triple talaq be abolished, polygamy be banned, and Uniform Civil Code (UCC) be implemented.
Undeterred by opposition from Maulanas, he continued to work for the cause, even as some Muslim organisations labelled him anti-Islam.
He established Muslim Satyashodhak Samaj on March 22, 1970 to create platform for his views and work.
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