Saudi Arabia: Woman Can Sue Husband, Father If She Is Married Off Without Consent
New
Age Islam News Bureau
16
December 2020
• India’s Riya Matharoo Claims Sharjah Women’s Tennis Championships Crown
•
'What Choice Do We Have?’ Rohingya Women Face Odyssey of Misery
•
Woman Born Out Of Wedlock to Muslim Father and Buddhist Mother Was Never A Muslim,
Federal Court Hears
•
8,084 More Saudi Female Employees Register with Transportation Program
•
Ending Violence Against Women 'Crucial' For Peaceful Society, Say Religious
Scholars
•
Bring Law to Check ‘Love Jihad’, ‘Sale’ Of Tribal Girls: Gujarat MP Vasava
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/saudi-arabia-woman-sue-husband/d/123776
--------
Saudi
Arabia: Woman Can Sue Husband, Father If She Is Married Off Without Consent
December
15, 2020
Samir
Salama
Representative Photo
----
Abu
Dhabi: Saudi Arabia has given a boost to women’s rights - mainly the right to
choice and consent in marriage - as the country recently adopted dramatic
social and legal reforms, local media reported.
The
move enhanced women’s independence in choosing and unequivocally agreeing on
the marriage partner. Scholars and legal experts said the reformed regulations
allowed a woman to attend her wedding session, check terms of the marriage
contract and approve it, as marriage is a lasting partnership between the
spouses based on their wish to be linked together.
Although
the woman’s choice and consent is essential for the validity of the marriage,
there are a few people who still force on women what is known as Gift Marriage,
in which the woman is offered as a wife to a man, without her consent and
without dowry, Al Watan reported.
This
forced marriage violates Islamic Sharia and causes many family issues,
including high divorce cases, and sometimes marital infidelities, scholars
said.
Ruling
on gift marriage
According
to an Islamic Fatwa (edict) by Sheikh Mohammad Salih Al Othaymeen, marriage is
not valid without the woman’s permission, and that marrying a girl without her
knowledge is forbidden, and the marriage contract is not valid unless she
permits it after that.
Hani
Al Ghamdi, a psychoanalyst, says, “Islam is keen on choosing and consent in
marriage, so it forbids forcing a woman to marry her cousin for instance.
“A
woman has the right to choose who she marries, when she marries, or if she
marries at all. A marriage is a forced marriage if a woman has not been able to
make any of those choices i.e. if she has faced physical pressure to marry e.g.
threats, physical violence, sexual violence or; emotional or psychological
pressure e.g. if she is made to feel like she is bringing shame on her family,’
he said.
Dr.
Samira Al Ghamdi, Chairman of the National Association for the Protection of
the Family, says, “Women are not a commodity to be offered as a “gift”, nor are
they private property to be sold and bought. Forced marriage violates basic
human rights on choice and freedom to consent, causes physical and mental
illnesses and divorce in up to 80 per cent of such marriages.
Lawyer
Hassan Al Zahrani stated that a woman has the right to sue her husband and
father, claiming that she did not consent to the marriage, and if her
allegations are proven, the court will annul the marriage contract and oblige her
father to return the full dowry to the husband.
https://gulfnews.com/world/gulf/saudi/saudi-arabia-offering-a-woman-as-a-wife-without-her-consent-violates-sharia-1.75908087
--------
India’s
Riya Matharoo claims Sharjah Women’s Tennis Championships crown
December
16, 2020
Alaric
Gomes
Riya Matharoo/ Image Credit: Supplied
-------
Dubai:
Riya Matharoo of India defeated UAE national player Sheikha Al Janahi in
straight sets to win the inaugural Sharjah Women’s Tennis Championships held
earlier this week.
Matharoo
won 6-1, 6-0 in a field that attracted 14 players, including ten Emiratis of
various abilities in a tournament that promises to be a regular on the UAE
tennis scene.
Issa
Hilal Al Hazami, Chairman of the Sharjah Sports Council was joined by Sarah
Baqer, Member of the Board of Directors at UAE Tennis Federation and the
supervisor of women’s sports and Nada Askar Al Naqbi, Director General of
Sharjah Women’s Sports in handing over trophies to new champion and the
runner-up.
Baqer
was pleased with the level shown by the young participating women in this
inaugural edition of the competition.
“In
the first place it will be a challenge for us to continue with this competition
along with the hope that we have more such tournaments planned for girls and
women in the UAE,” Baqer said. “Tennis is such a sublime sport and it can bring
like-minded athletes of different abilities together. This, in turn, can help
in the development of sport while giving women the opportunity to shine and
gain self-confidence and competitiveness. We are clear on our objectives of
further developing tennis, especially for our girls and women of the UAE while
trying to have more sponsors and organisers on board.
“A
tournament like this one will not only help and encourage the spread of tennis
at all age levels, but start getting girls and women involved at the
grassroots. I am convinced that a tournament like this one will play a historic
part in the overall development of the sport in the country.
The
event was jointly organised by the UAE Tennis Federation along with Sharjah
Women’s Sports.
https://gulfnews.com/sport/uae-sport/indias-riya-matharoo-claims-sharjah-womens-tennis-championships-crown-1.75938600
--------
'What
Choice Do We Have?’ Rohingya Women Face Odyssey of Misery
16
Dec 2020
KUTUPALONG,
Bangladesh: Stay in a squalid refugee camp - hopeless, starving, and made to
feel a burden - or leave, risking death, rape, human trafficking and months at
sea to reach a husband you've never met.
This
is the bleak choice many Rohingya women, already scarred from fleeing violent
persecution in Myanmar, are now facing.
As
conditions deteriorate in increasingly overcrowded Bangladeshi refugee camps,
desperate parents are marrying off their daughters to Rohingya men thousands of
kilometres away in Malaysia.
Wed
by phone or video apps, the girls have little say in such unions and rely on
occasional calls to build a relationship with their new partners as they begin
treacherous journeys to reach them.
"My
parents kept asking me to find a way to reach Malaysia - living with them, I
was just an extra mouth to feed," Explained Jannat Ara, talking about her
marriage to Nur Alam, a Rohingya man who lives in Kuala Lumpur.
She
has seven other siblings, and the family had to share and survive on
twice-monthly 25kg rations of rice.
Ara
has never met the man she married via phonecall from the refugee camp but,
after mounting pressure from relatives to seek him out, decided to leave.
She
is one of the thousands of Rohingya, who are stateless and cannot travel abroad
legally, forced to put their faith in husbands they don't know and the people
smugglers paid to transport them.
Her
clandestine route took her via rickshaw to port, and from a small boat to a
packed, dilapidated trawler.
But
Malaysia denied it entry and "after floating at sea for two months and
seeing many people die, we returned to the place where we started", the
20-year-old told AFP from the Bangladeshi camps.
ABSENT
GROOMS
Arranged
marriages are part of Rohingya custom, but in the Bangladeshi refugee camps,
families have little income and struggle to afford the traditional dowries
required.
Virtual
weddings and international betrothals can seem an ideal solution.
At
just 18, Somuda Begum was regarded as getting "too old" for marriage
by relatives, and while proposals came from some families within the camp, they
all demanded "a lot of money".
"My
parents couldn't fix my marriage as my old father barely had any money to pay
for a wedding. So he thought it would be better to send me to Malaysia
instead," she said.
Begum,
one of 11 children, was shown a photo of her prospective husband before the
pair wed via video call - her in-laws and an imam were present in her family's
shack for the "ceremony", her fiance on screen with his friends.
But
the journey into the unknown held some appeal.
"I
often got frustrated hearing my mother and neighbours saying I was too old. I
had no reason to say no. And deep inside I felt a bit happy that finally I
would go and start my own family, away from this chaos," she said.
BETRAYED
Begum's
ageing father, Mohammad Ledu, entrusted her to a middleman who pledged that for
30,000 taka (US$350) he would take her to Malaysia.
Instead,
he took the money as soon she reached the boat and left her.
She
never reached her husband - turned away from its destination, the vessel
drifted at sea for two months before the Bangladeshi coast guard rescued them.
"We
all thought she would have a better life. But all these efforts were in vain.
Now they won't even return the money we paid," Ledu said.
Charities
warn that families in camps can be easily tricked, mistaking human traffickers
and pimps for matchmakers offering brighter futures.
The
increase in attempts at sailings is driven by desperation at life in the camps,
where refugee numbers have swelled to almost 1 million since a 2017 military
crackdown in mostly Buddhist Myanmar, said Chris Lewa, director of NGO the
Arakan Project.
"Conditions
in Bangladesh are getting worse, there are more restrictions on movement, more
overcrowding," said Lewa, whose group tracks Rohingya boat journeys.
LIMBO,
STIGMA
Just
over 100,000 Rohingya are currently registered with the United Nations in
Muslim-majority Malaysia, but as they are denied citizenship, they remain in
limbo.
The
Rohingya men who have settled have few chances to assimilate - as refugees they
cannot legally work and so most take low-paid construction labour.
And
while they may share a religion with about 60 per cent of the population, they
frequently face discrimination and harassment.
Most
are unable to find local wives due to the stigma attached to marrying a refugee
with few prospects or social standing.
"It's
very hard to find a wife in Malaysia. Malays don't want to marry (us),"
explained Mahumudul Hasson Rashid, who fled Bangladesh five years ago.
This
shortfall of brides is driving the demand for women and girls from the
Bangladesh camps.
Lonely
men turn to relatives and matchmakers in the camps to organise unions, paying
middlemen between US$2,000 and US$3,000 to smuggle in women by land and boat.
"We
do worry about this, but there is no other way. There is no other option since
we don't have passports," Rashid said.
'I
KNOW IT'S DANGEROUS'
Janu,
whose husband is in Malaysia, insisted she knew of the dangers before embarking
on the journey to join him.
"I
know it is dangerous but I took the decision," the 18-year-old said,
adding that while her marriage was arranged by her parents, she went
voluntarily to start a new life.
But
her journey turned out to be the stuff of nightmares.
Told
the trip would take a week, she endured a 200-day ordeal as her crowded fishing
trawler was blocked from landing in Malaysia and smugglers refused to release
those on board until their relatives agreed to make extra payments.
"The
captain told my husband that if he did not give money, he will torture and kill
me and throw me into the sea," she said.
As
a growing number of passengers perished and, with no hope of reaching their
intended destination, the smugglers eventually cut their losses and dumped
their human cargo in northern Indonesia.
Janu
and about 300 others who survived the voyage now find themselves in another
refugee camp in Lhokseumawe city but are hopeful that, once travel curbs are
eased, they will be able to quietly cross to neighbouring Malaysia.
She
says her fiancee sends money when he can, but conceded that "he has no
plan to come here for me".
DOMESTIC
VIOLENCE THREAT
Glorene
Das, executive director of Tenaganita, an NGO that works with migrants and
refugees in Malaysia, said that girls and women remain vulnerable even if they
reach their destination.
The
community is "very closed" and, while little formal data exists, she
added that domestic abuse is "most definitely" a concern because the
women have few rights and little access to outside help.
"We
found cases of forced marriages and child marriages - it was the parents'
decision," Das said.
Once
the marriage is formalised, Rohingya husbands are also expected to financially
support their in-laws.
Amerah,
18, has not seen her fiance - who is a construction worker in Malaysia - since
she was six.
"Since
the marriage was arranged by my parents, I agreed. We cannot go beyond the
opinion of our parents. I have not met my husband since the last time we saw
each other when we were kids," she explained.
Their
courtship was via WhatsApp and social media before she attempted to travel to
join him.
The
teenager expected seven days of sailing - instead she and her fellow passengers
were adrift for seven months, battling sickness and malnutrition. Many did not
survive.
Eventually,
the traffickers abandoned them in northern Indonesia.
Listless
and alone, having swapped one refugee camp for another, Amerah has little hope
for the future.
"I
don't know when I will get married. I do almost nothing here," she said.
"I
will follow whatever I am told to do."
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/-what-choice-do-we-have----rohingya-women-face-odyssey-of-misery-13783016
--------
Woman
born out of wedlock to Muslim father and Buddhist mother was never a Muslim,
Federal Court hears
16
Dec 2020
BY
IDA LIM
PUTRAJAYA,
Dec 16 — A Malaysian woman who was born to a Muslim man and a Buddhist woman
was never a Muslim to begin with as the parents were not married and as she was
an illegitimate child, and the declaration of her religious status as a
non-Muslim should be made by the civil courts instead of the Shariah courts,
the Federal Court heard today.
In
this case, 39-year-old Rosliza Ibrahim has an identity card that states her
religion as Islam, and has been waiting in a five-year legal battle for the
civil courts to declare that she was never a Muslim and is not a Muslim, and
that all Selangor state laws for Muslims do not apply to her and that Selangor
Shariah courts have no jurisdiction over her.
At
the High Court, Rosliza had shown proof that the Federal Territories and 11
states (Selangor, Johor, Kedah, Kelantan, Melaka, Negri Sembilan, Pahang,
Penang, Perak, Perlis and Terengganu) do not have any records of her mother
converting to Islam or of her biological parents entering into a Muslim
marriage, as well as provided the court with her late mother’s October 8, 2008
statutory declaration of not being married to Rosliza’s father when she was
born.
Both
the High Court and the Court of Appeal had previously in June 2017 and April
2018 respectively ruled against Rosliza, which led to the hearing of her appeal
today involving two legal questions before the Federal Court.
Civil
courts vs Shariah courts
One
of the key questions of law today in the Federal Court was whether the High
Court has exclusive jurisdiction — or is the only court with the powers — to
hear and decide on a matter if it is about “whether a person is or is not a
Muslim under the law” instead of “whether a person is no longer a Muslim”,
based on the Federal Constitution.
Rosliza's
lawyer Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram today argued that both the High Court and Court
of Appeal had wrongly categorised her case as being a Muslim seeking to stop
being a Muslim and that this had resulted in them deciding that she could not get
the civil courts to make a declaration on her religious status.
But
Sri Ram said that Rosliza's case was different from the case of Lina Joy, where
a Malay who was initially a Muslim had renounced the faith of Islam and where
the Federal Court had in a -1 majority decision ruled in 2007 that such matters
are for the Shariah courts to decide.
In
Lina Joy's case, she went to court after the National Registration Department
(NRD) allowed her to change her name but refused to remove the word “Islam” and
her original name from her identity card, as the NRD insisted on Lina producing
an order from the Shariah court regarding her renunciation of Islam even though
she had filled in the IC application form with her religion stated as
Christianity and a previous statutory declaration that she had renounced the
faith of Islam.
Sri
Ram argued that the lower courts' misclassification of his client's case
resulted in them ruling that the civil courts cannot decide on Rosliza's
religious status and that she should go to the Shariah courts.
“Our
submission is that this is not a case of an exit of religion, rather it's a
case where the applicant contends that she never belonged to the religion of
Islam.
“This
classification led to a fundamental error on the part of the courts below in
refusing to seize themselves of jurisdiction and instead hold that the Shariah
court was seized of jurisdiction on the facts,” he said.
Sri
Ram said the Federal Court's majority decision in Lina Joy was wrong as it
treated the civil courts' judicial powers as having been ceded entirely or
given entirely to the Shariah court, and that it was wrong to interpret the
Federal Constitution as having implicitly given the Shariah courts jurisdiction
in the matters in that case as such jurisdiction have to be expressly mentioned
in law.
But
even if it is a case related to the act of leaving Islam, Sri Ram said the High
Court in the civil courts still has the jurisdiction to hear and decide on the
matter.
According
to court documents by Rosliza’s lawyers, it was asserted that both she and her
mother never converted to Islam and that there was no valid marriage between
her parents, and that she was raised as a Buddhist since birth, and that the
application form for her identity card cannot be considered as proof of her
actual religion as it was allegedly riddled with conflicting details and
inconsistent handwritings.
Was
Rosliza a Muslim in the first place or not?
During
the hearing today, the Federal Court judges repeatedly brought the attention of
the lawyers for the Selangor government and the Selangor Islamic Religious
Council (Mais) to the specific questions of law that were being examined in the
appeal, and sought clarification from them.
Selangor
state legal adviser, Datuk Salim Soib @ Hamid, who was appearing for the
Selangor state government, insisted that Rosliza was a Muslim when she was
born.
To
justify his arguments, Salim cited Section 2 of the Administration of the
Religion of Islam (State of Selangor) Enactment 2003, where one of the
definitions of “Muslim” was stated as being a person whose parents — either one
or both parents — were a Muslim at the time of the person's birth.
Chief
Judge of Malaya Tan Sri Azahar Mohamed then asked what the religious status of
Rosliza would be when she is born illegitimate as there is no valid marriage
between the Muslim father and Buddhist mother.
Salim
then again insisted that Rosliza was born a Muslim due to Section 2 as she
allegedly took on her father's religion and argued that only the Shariah courts
have the powers to decide on her religious status.
Chief
Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat however highlighted that the general principle
under Islam is that a Muslim father and non-Muslim mother could not have been
married because one of them is a non-Muslim, and that in such a case, the child
would under Islamic principles be born illegitimate and be unable to take on
the Muslim father's religion but would follow the mother's religion.
Salim
went on to argue that if the marriage is being disputed, the case should be
referred to the Shariah court to determine the validity of the marriage.
Azahar
highlighted however that Rosliza's mother had provided a statutory declaration
to the courts that she is not a Muslim and that she never married Rosliza's
father, and that there was also evidence from 11 state Islamic religious
councils in Malaysia that showed that there is no record of any marriage
between Rosliza's mother and father.
As
Salim again said the Shariah court should determine the validity of the
marriage, Tengku Maimun pointed out that Rosliza would naturally not fall under
the Shariah court's jurisdiction, as she would be following her non-Muslim
mother's religion due to her illegitimate birth to the non-Muslim mother and
Muslim father.
Salim
then sought to rely on the application for Rosliza's identity card filled in by
her father where her father was stated as a Muslim who was stated as married to
the her mother, asserting that the truth of the contents of the identity card
documents would depend on the applicant giving correct information for the
application.
Tengku
Maimun however highlighted that cannot be the case as it would mean that even
false information provided by a person applying for an identity card would be
taken to be conclusive, then pointing out that Regulation 24(1) of the National
Registration Regulations 1990 states that the person who claims the IC contents
to be true has the burden of proving the truth of the contents.
Tengku
Maimun said that Regulation 24(1) meant that the Selangor state government has
the burden of proving Rosliza's IC contents to be true, but Salim disagreed.
Was
the Muslim father and non-Muslim mother ever married?
In
another lengthy exchange with the judges, Mais lawyer Abdul Rahim Sinwan
insisted that Rosliza's parents were married and that Rosliza was born a
Muslim, by citing the information filled up in the IC application form.
Abdul
Rahim also insisted that there could be a valid marriage even without proof of
marriage through a marriage certificate, claiming that Islam allows for a valid
marriage even without it being registered if both parties agree they are
married and that they could prove such an unregistered marriage by calling in
witnesses in the Shariah court.
Tengku
Maimun questioned the effect of such a line of argument, asking: “So taking
this analogy, my question would be when there is a raid, and you say there is
an offence of khalwat (close proximity) and cannot produce marriage
certificate, but the marriage could very well be valid under Islamic law?”
“Yes,
it is,” Abdul Rahim replied when confirming his argument of an undocumented
marriage having the possibility of being valid in Islam.
When
asked by Tengku Maimun, Abdul Rahim agreed however that a non-Muslim cannot
marry with a Muslim based on the general principles of Islamic law, and that
the child born from such a couple would be illegitimate and that the child
would then follow the mother's religion instead of the father's religion.
Abdul
Rahim however argued that Rosliza was not an illegitimate child, again
insisting that she is Muslim due to her father being Muslim.
Senior
federal counsel Suzana Atan, who represented the attorney general as amicus
curiae, said that an illegitimate child would follow the religion of the mother
and agreed that Rosliza would never be a Muslim to begin with if she is
illegitimate.
Suzana
agreed that the burden of proving the contents of Rosliza's IC would be on the
Selangor state government and Mais based on Regulation 24(1) since they are
claiming the IC contents to be true, before citing the IC application form
filled in by Rosliza's father as proof of the truth of the IC contents.
Lawyer
Philip Koh, who held a watching brief for the Malaysian Consultative Council of
Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism (MCCBCHST), highlighted
Section 2(2) of the 2003 Selangor enactment to say that definitions of terms in
that law are required to not conflict with hukum Syarak or Islamic law.
Koh
suggested that Section 2 regarding the definition of Muslim — where one or both
of the parents of the person is a Muslim at the person's birth — should be read
consistently with hukum Syarak or Islamic law where an illegitimate child would
follow the mother's religion.
Lawyer
Mansoor Saat appeared today for the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia
(Suhakam) as an amicus curiae.
After
hearing the arguments, the Federal Court said it would deliver its decision at
a later date.
The
other judges on today’s nine-member panel were President of Court of Appeal Tan
Sri Rohana Yusuf, and Federal Court judges Datuk Nallini Pathmanathan, Datuk
Abdul Rahman Sebli, Datuk Zabariah Mohd Yusof, Datuk Seri Hasnah Mohammed
Hashim, Datuk Mary Lim Thiam Suan and Datuk Rhodzariah Bujang.
https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2020/12/16/woman-born-out-of-wedlock-to-muslim-father-and-buddhist-mother-was-never-a/1932431
--------
8,084
More Saudi Female Employees Register with Transportation Program
December
16, 2020
RIYADH:
A total of 8,084 more Saudi female employees registered with the Human
Resources Development Fund’s (Hadaf) Wusool program during November 2020.
Wusool
is a transportation program for females that helps ease their daily commute.
The
program aims to find solutions that reduce the burden of transportation costs
for Saudi female workers in the private sector by providing them with subsidies
from Hadaf for high-quality, safe and secure transportation services to and
from the workplace, partnering with taxi companies through licensed smart apps.
It
aims to increase the participation of women in the labor market and increase
job stability.
Hadaf
recently made amendments and updates to Wusool to ensure that the largest
number of applicants benefitted from it. This comes as part of the fund’s
support for women working in the private sector.
The
fund recently raised the ceiling of financial support to SR1,100 ($293) per
month for beneficiaries whose salaries range between SR6,001 and SR8,000.
Hadaf
has also extended the support period for Saudi women employees registered with
the transportation program to 24 months instead of 12 months.
The
program covers 13 regions of the Kingdom. Women working in the private sector
can register for the Wusool program by visiting http://wusool.sa.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1778086/saudi-arabia
--------
Ending
Violence Against Women 'Crucial' For Peaceful Society, Say Religious Scholars
08
Dec 2020
Religious
scholars from different schools of faith stressed that it was
"crucial" to end violence of all kinds against women in order to
build a peaceful society and maintain interfaith harmony, a press statement by
EVAW Alliance KP and UN Women said on Tuesday.
The
scholars were attending a dialogue, jointly organised by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
(KP) office of UN Women and the EVAW Alliance KP, to observe the 16 Days of
Activism against Gender-Based Violence (GBV). The scholars also signed a
declaration condemning gender-based violence and vowed to spread awareness in
their respective communities to put an end to the practice.
They
also acknowledged that while any individual can be a victim of GBV, in
Pakistan, women, "being the most vulnerable segment of society and
deprived of their basic rights", were more likely to face such violence,
followed by members of the transgender community. The scholars emphasised that
it was the state's responsibility to protect the vulnerable sections of society.
"There
is a need to strengthen state-run social protection networks and ensure the
provision of required support to vulnerable groups,” the press release quoted
the scholars as saying.
“For
prevention of gender-based violence, the state has primary responsibility to
protect its citizens and religious leaders have a strong potential to influence
the lives and behaviour of those who follow their faith and share their
beliefs,” they further said.
Explaining
the role of religious leaders in efforts against GBV, EVAW/G Alliance co-Chair
Qamar Naseem said that scholars had great influence over people and can help in
"shaping the behaviour of local communities".
“It
is essential to engage religious scholars from different faith groups, as a
practical strategy, to raise awareness on gender-based violence and address the
issue,” Naseem was quoted as saying.
Provincial
head of United Nations Women KP, Zainab Qaisar Khan, said that gender-based
violence was not limited to domestic abuse, sexual violence including rape and
honour crimes and added: “It can happen anywhere, anytime and across all
classes irrespective of education level and income status. It can happen
against boys, men, elderly and transgender but mostly the target are women and
girls.”
https://www.dawn.com/news/1594710/ending-violence-against-women-crucial-for-peaceful-society-say-religious-scholars
--------
Bring
Law to Check ‘Love Jihad’, ‘Sale’ Of Tribal Girls: Gujarat MP Vasava
December
16, 2020
BJP
MP from Bharuch Mansukh Vasava has written to Chief Minister Vijay Rupani
urging that a strict law must be brought in to curtail cases of alleged “love
jihad”. Vasava has also urged Rupani to look into the issue of alleged “sale
and purchase” of tribal girls within the state as prospective partners for men
from districts where the sex ratio is skewed.
In
his letter, dated December 3, Vasava said, “The number of cases where Muslim
youth have been luring Hindu girls with various promises and trapping them in
marriages by way of love jihad are increasing. Many of these Muslim youth
already have two or three wives and still, exploit the compulsions of some
Hindu girls and entice them into marriages. It is the need of the hour to have
a law against love jihad, on the lines of the Uttar Pradesh government.”
Vasava
further states in his letter, “Poor tribal families being lured into selling
off their young girls is a big issue. Many men from other districts in the
state where the sex ratio has been skewed since several years appoint agents to
fetch brides for them from tribal areas. They pay the families and purchase the
girls. Accordingly, the women end up living a life of suffering as they do not
consent to such sale. The state government must urgently look into this
matter.”
Vasava,
who tweeted his letter on Tuesday and also addressed the media in Rajpipla
said, “I have written a letter to the Chief Minister drawing his attention to
the fact that girls from tribal areas of Gujarat are sold off to people from
areas where the sex ratio is skewed. Along with love jihad, this should also be
highlighted in the law. There are agents who are active in the tribal areas.
There are rate cards. If the tribal girls are beautiful or if the prospective
man is older in age, the price for the girl is more. The agents exploit the
financial crisis of tribal families and parents sell off their girls against
their will.”
Vasava
refused to name the districts or point out specific instances but said that he
has urged the government to crack down on such illegal activity as “soon there will
be no suitable girls left in tribal areas for the eligible tribal men.”
https://indianexpress.com/article/india/bring-law-to-check-love-jihad-sale-of-tribal-girls-mp-vasava-7106574/
--------
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/saudi-arabia-woman-sue-husband/d/123776
New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism