No Conjugal Rights, No Maintenance: Half-Divorcees Indian Women - Technically Still Married, Practically Divorced
New Age Islam News Bureau
15 August 2022
• I’m Disturbed By New Threats Made Against Me:
Taslima Nasreen
• Women Once Again Harassed At Minar-e-Pakistan On
Independence Day
• Muslim Woman Targeted in France due to Hijab, Said It
Violates The Place's Secular Foundations
• Cancel Culture Affects Women, Minorities In Turkey -
Analysis
Compiled by New
Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/conjugal-rights-divorcees-indian/d/127717
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No Conjugal Rights, No Maintenance: Half-Divorcees
Indian Women - Technically Still Married, Practically Divorced
Shayara Bano’s petition
against instant talaq by husband Rizwan Ahmed snowballed into the landmark
Supreme Court verdict. File photo: Special Arrangement
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Ziya Us Salam
AUGUST 13, 2022
Technically married but practically divorced, the
women say their husbands haven’t accepted them and they cannot remarry either
Five years after the Supreme Court's five-judge Bench
under Chief Justice J.S. Khehar invalidated instant triple Talaq in August
2017, the women petitioners continue to live a life of half-divorcees.
Technically still married, practically divorced, they enjoy no conjugal rights
nor receive any regular maintenance from the estranged husbands. Practically
abandoned, the women cannot remarry in the absence of a legally valid divorce.
After the verdict, none of the men were visited by law enforcement bodies and
told to take back their wives. Further, no arrests could be made for giving
instant triple talaq as the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage)
Act, 2019 came into force long after pronouncement of instant talaq.
A cloud of confusion hangs in the air as the women are
uncertain of their eligibility for a fresh marriage. The apex court, it may be
recalled, invalidated instant triple talaq in the Shayara Bano versus the Union
of India case while refraining from commenting on the state of their marriages
directly. The women had gone to court seeking redress as the victims of instant
triple talaq. However, after the court had set aside Talaq-e-Biddat or instant
triple talaq, the husbands of the petitioners failed to accept them back in
marriage. Many of the men, meanwhile, have gone on to get married again, and
sired children. Even as they toil through life, none of the women have opted to
exercise khula, a woman’s inalienable right to divorce, either.
Says Shayara Bano whose petition against instant talaq
by husband Rizwan Ahmed snowballed into the landmark verdict, "My husband
established no contact to restore marriage after the judgment. Legally, I am
still married to him.”
She has not sought to end marriage through khula
either. “I am fighting for the custody of my children. My son is 18, daughter
15. I only get to see them in court. I want to speak to them at least on phone
but it is not possible. For two years due to the pandemic, there were only
online hearings. So I have not seen them since then. My husband though has
remarried.” After the historic verdict, Ms. Bano was made the Vice-President of
the Uttarkhand Women’s Commission, a position she continues to hold. At one
time, she had to even leave her parental place in Kashipur due to social
outrage over her decision.
Says Ishrat Jahan, one of the petitioners whose
marriage was said to have ended when her Dubai-based husband Murtaza Ansari
pronounced talaq on phone, “Everybody welcomed the Supreme Court judgment but
what did I gain? Nothing. No alimony, no maintenance. My husband got married
again then offered to take me back. His family even denies that he said talaq,
talaq, talaq. I cannot now go back to him. He has not sent me a legally valid
talaqnama either nor have I taken divorce though khula.”
In this state of half-divorce, Ms. Jahan, who joined
the BJP Minority Morcha as the national secretary a few years ago, cannot hope
to marry again. “I am not going to get married again. That ship has sailed. I
am looking after my children. They are in different classes, V to XII. My
husband has got married. He has a child.”
Ms. Jahan has tried her hand at politics. She joined
politics before the Lok Sabha elections in 2019. “I joined politics because I
needed a goal in life but people said so many things after I joined the BJP
that it became difficult for me to walk in my lane at one time. Now, it is
fine. Nobody disturbs me,” says Ms. Jahan taking a little break from her sewing
machine, her only source of earning.
Similar is the case of two other petitioners, Gulshan
Parveen and Aafreen Rehman. Technically their marriage subsists but
practically, they are divorced, the court’s ruling notwithstanding.
Says Zakia Soman, co-founder of Bharatiya Muslim
Mahila Andolan, “The marriages of the petitioners subsist but the husbands do
not want to reconcile. If the women want to remarry, they will have to do
khula. All the burden is on women. However, it was not a battle in vain as
instances of triple talaq have come down since the verdict. Historically, these
women are heroines.”
Source: The Hindu
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I’m Disturbed By New Threats Made Against Me: Taslima
Nasreen
Taslima Nasrin
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14th August 2022
New Delhi: Author Taslima Nasreen against whom several
fatwas have been issued for her “anti-Islamic remarks” says that she is
extremely disturbed after a religious leader, addressing a rally of thousands
in Pakistan yesterday called for her to be assassinated.
Known for her writings on the oppression of women and
criticism of religion, several of her works are banned in Bangladesh, the
country of her origin. She has been living in exile since 1994. After living
for more than 10 years in Europe and the US, she moved to India in 2004.
“While I have had several fatwas issued against me in
the past, this is the first time that someone has announced my name in front of
such a huge gathering and demanded that I be killed. Who will not be disturbed
by this? Look at my Twitter handle, there are so many comments saying that
after Rushdie, it is now my turn. I am still confused about whether to delete
or retain those tweets. Maybe I should not, if something happens to me, people
should get to know… Of course, I do have protection, but anyone will feel
insecure after what happened to Rushdie, no?” she tells IANS.
Talk to her about the peculiar silence of moderate
Muslims whenever violence manifests in the name of Islam, and she asserts that
have a very “different character”.
“While some progressive Muslims are against violence,
they are afraid to speak as that might put their lives in danger. But then,
silence is of two kinds — one that emerges from fear — and the other that comes
from supporting them without speaking a word.”
Stressing that while many religions have slowly
evolved, changed with the times and started considering man and women equal,
one can still face dire consequences if Islam is criticised, Nasreen adds: “If
I scrutinise Islam, rest assured, I will be attacked. Sadly, it has been
exempted from criticism. Let us not forget that Islamic rule has been used for
political purposes as well.
“Instead of laws based on equality and justice, they
have rules against them. Children are being brainwashed to become
fundamentalists and terrorists. So how do you expect change?” she concludes.
Source: Siasat Daily
https://www.siasat.com/im-disturbed-by-new-threats-made-against-me-taslima-nasreen-2390273/
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Women once again harassed at Minar-e-Pakistan on
Independence Day
August 14, 2022
Multiple incidents of harassment against women were
once again reported at Minar-e-Pakistan in Lahore on the occasion of the
country's 75th Independence Day, Express News reported.
According to details, the police could not handle the
situation due to a large number of men involved in the despicable act despite
the fact that over 800 personnel were deputed at the national monument.
The men, who accompanied the women, also got into
heated arguments with the harassers. At one point, clubs were used by them to
disperse the mob.
However, the suspects managed to flee the scene before
the police could catch them. Later, police also baton-charged those present at
the Azadi Bridge.
This is not the first time such an incident happened
at Minar-e-Pakistan. Last year, a female TikToker, along with her companions,
was harassed and assaulted by a mob in Lahore’s Greater Iqbal Park.
The victim stated in her complaint lodged with the
Lari Adda police station that she was filming a video near Minar-e-Pakistan
along with her friends when a mob of around 400 people attacked them.
She alleged that the mob picked her up and started
tossing her in the air. “I was stripped and my clothes were torn apart,” she
said.
The incident has sparked outrage nationwide. Then
prime minister Imran Khan, while taking notice of the incident, spoke with
Punjab IGP about it.
Then human rights minister Shireen Mazari also
condemned the assault and harassment. “We need to try and change such violent
behavioural patterns in our people,” she remarked.
Mazari also urged “effective implementation” of laws
to have “some deterrent effect” on people’s behaviour.
However, she maintained that the main challenge was
changing the ‘mindset’ of the people to stop crimes against “all vulnerable
members of our society”.
Source: Tribune Pakistan
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Muslim Woman Targeted in France due to Hijab, Said It
Violates The Place's Secular Foundations
August 14, 2022
According to a video clip posted by a woman named
Namita on her social media accounts, the French woman described her as “dirty”
and threatened to kill her if she touched her, and also demanded that she
remove her veil because it violates the place's secular foundations, Al Jazeera
reported.
The video clip included a sharp debate between the
Muslim woman of Ivorian origin and the French administration about secularism,
as the latter said, “Secular France means that it does not recognize all
religions, which means that the veil and other religious symbols are not
allowed in public places.”
Namita responded that she, as a Muslim girl, is
representative of French men and women who are victims of the right-wing
promoted rhetoric.
However, the French administrator called the police
and asked them to come in order to force her to remove the veil.
She demanded the elderly who was in the room to move
and reject Namita's veil, but one of the elderly men told her that he had no
problem dealing with a Muslim woman who wears the hijab, reminding her that the
matter does not affect the secular face of France.
Islam is the second religion in the French Republic,
and unofficial estimates indicate that the number of the Muslim minority there
exceeds 5.5 million citizens, constituting more than 8% of the total
population.
Source: IQNA
https://iqna.ir/en/news/3480089/muslim-woman-targeted-in-france-due-to-hijab
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Cancel culture affects women, minorities in Turkey -
analysis
Aug 14 2022
Diverging from how it operates in the West, so-called
‘cancel culture’ in Turkey affects women and minorities rather than addressing
inequality, Istanbul-based journalist Alexandra de Cramer wrote for Asia Times
on Sunday.
Citing examples from recent months, de Cramer said
powerful men have been targeting women who voice criticisms.
When actress Birce Akalay took to Instagram in July to
say she was “sick” of Turkey’s economy going further down the drain and poverty
increasing in the country, a pro-government columnist implicitly accused her of
ties to Fethullah Gülen, an Islamic preacher who Turkey holds responsible for a
failed coup attempt in 2016.
Küçük said, “Those who have spoken like this in the
last 20 years have either gone to jail or fled, or their careers are over.”
Another actress, Ezgi Mola, was sentenced to pay
compensation to Musa Orhan, a sergeant in the Turkish Armed Forces who was
accused of abducting and raping a 17-year-old Kurdish girl who committed
suicide over the incident.
Mola had called Orhan a “rapist”, before the court
eventually convicted the sergeant of the very crime. However, he still won a
defamation case against the actress.
When 22 year old musician Ece Ronay accused Mehmet Ali
Erbil of sexual harassment in October 2021, the veteran comedian and TV
personality turned the accusations on the young woman by saying she was
“marketing” her body on TikTok and therefore should not be coy about sexual
matters. Erbil’s followers attacked Ronay, and he sued her for defamation. The
case is pending as of August 2022.
The #MeToo movement “never caught on” in Turkey, de
Cramer said, save for a brief flicker after the brutal rape and murder of 20
year old Özgecan Aslan in 2015. “Turkey’s push against sexual abuse and
harassment has arguably backtracked,” she said.
Rates of violence against women have skyrocketed in
the last two decades under the Justice and Development Party (AKP) rule, with
femicides increasing by 1,400 percent according to reports. In the last 15
years, the number of women seeking protection from their intimate partners rose
70-fold, according to a recent report by opposition deputy Gamze Akkuş İlgezdi.
At least 246 women have been murdered by their
intimate partners in 2022, according to activist-run Monument Counter, a
project keeping a tally of femicides since 2008. Turkey’s authorities do not
make femicide figures public.
In 2021, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan signed
an executive order to withdraw Turkey from the Council of Europe’s Istanbul
Convention, a key document in battling gendered violence. In July this year,
the Council of State ruled in favour of the withdrawal, despite major
objections from almost all sections of Turkish society.
“The government is an explicit ally in hatred against
women,” veteran women’s rights activist Canan Güllü said on the matter.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s judiciary “keeps rewarding men who
treat women like property”, de Cramer said. “People who have the ear of the
public should not target women with their vileness, as doing so will only
perpetuate the injustice.”
Source: Ahval News
https://ahvalnews.com/turkey-womens-rights/cancel-culture-affects-women-minorities-turkey-analysis
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