
The superiority of Indian Muslim men has been guaranteed by the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPL), the guardian of Muslim personal law or Shariat in India. Disgusted by the lack of democratic elements in the board, Muslim woman activists instituted the All India Muslim Women Personal Law Board (AIMWPLB) in 2005. In March 2008, the AIMWPLB released a model Nikahnama or marriage deed for Muslim women rejecting divorce through SMS, email or phone, recognition of the right of women to seek divorce or Khula and accepting the triple talaq only when it is spaced out over a period of 3 months.
There is little interest in India to reform the Muslim law. In 1986, the Congress led Parliament nullified the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Shah Bano case on divorced women’s right to maintenance to appease the Muslim male vote bank. According to Zeenat Shaukat Ali, author of The Empowerment of Women in Islam: With Special Reference to Marriage and Divorce, in India it is not Shariat that is practiced but it is the Anglo-Mohammedan law that evolved during the British rule. The Privy Council had ruled against reference to the Koran or the original texts of Hadith but had preferred instead on some dubious commentaries of the Hadith. Unless the Indian Parliament realizes that for the well-being of the Indian Muslim women it should not obstruct progressive Supreme Court rulings and allow implementation of AIMWPLB’s recommendations, the state of Muslim women in India will not improve.
This article was published by:Arpita Mukherjee
At arpitablog