Not all Muslim women who filed petitions with the State Commission for Women against their husbands for abandoning them by pronouncing triple talaq are optimistic that the Supreme Court verdict striking down the arbitrary practice will bring them justice.
It is not the Muslim Personal Law Board alone but even the law enforcing system and police let the Muslim women down, they say.
Thirty-four-year-old Syed Humera, mother of two kids, said her husband gave her talaq orally in 2016 after 10 years of marriage, but did not give a certificate terminating the marriage formally till date. He refused to return the ‘Meher’ given at the time of ‘Nikah’ nor paid the maintenance for the wife and children.
Humera, a graduate then approached the State Commission for Women for justice.
He was arrested on the charges of domestic violence and harassment for demanding money from her wife’s family but let out on bail. Humera, however, says the flaw was not in the Islam religion which laid down clear procedure for giving talaq and returning cash and valuables taken during the marriage and supporting the children. “But some uncivilised persons were undermining the procedure laid down by religion. Every one has to follow what is prescribed by the religion,” was her response to the Supreme Court verdict on triple talaq.
“There is no point in living with a person who physically and emotionally abused me. What all I wanted is my maintenance and share in property for my children. It is laid down under the Muslim Personal Law,” she says. She was married to Md. Shah Nawaz in the year 2000 but her married life was never good as her husband harassed her from time to time to bring money from her parents.
She was shocked to find that her husband got married again without her knowledge and forged a document as if she sought talaq on her own and did not expect any Meher or maintenance in 2011 itself even as she was living with him till 2016. Now, she is fighting a legal case for maintenance and money that was due to her. Humera welcomed the Supreme Court verdict to ban arbitrary triple talaq. But she also found fault with the police and the Qazi who allegedly connived with her husband that allowed him to come out on bail and lead a normal life with his second wife.
Neither Islam nor Hindu or any religion would do harm for any one. Culprits were those who manipulated the religion as well as system, she said.
