Why Muslim Bodies are Against Revocation of Triple Talaq?

Introduction

Recently, the Indian Government disposed before the honorable Supreme Court that it is against the Triple Talaq System as it does not want to see the Muslim women discriminated in the country.  Union Government reasoned that the so-called Talaq System stood against the constitution that ensures the equality for all. The central government gave its response when the apex court asked it to take a learned stance on the way the Muslim women get discriminated in the name of the obsolete Triple Talaq System.  A group of Muslim woman activists who wanted to put an end to this draconian law filed a review petition in the apex court of the country. Against this backdrop, we are going to delve deep into the historical reasons based on which the Muslim bodies are putting up collective resistance to the change in this law.

Triple Talaq System as Practiced in India

The Muslim bodies say that this system is a transparent system that ensures that there is no legal binding for the man and woman to stay in the wedlock after the uttering of the word ‘Talaq’ three times. According to these bodies, this practice is transparent, and it is applicable for both men and women. Another salient feature of this system is that the people can execute this law from anywhere.  This could be done via email, mobile call, SMS or before elders in a local mosque.  While women use less often, men use it most often when they see another beautiful woman in their neighborhood. This has become a curse of sort for those women who are forcefully married to bridegrooms from abroad. The so-called the guardians of Muslim society All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) always become a mute spectator when such cases come before them. We can see similar stories happening when the wealthy middle-aged men marry young girls coming from the poorer families. In most such cases the brides were as young as 12 or 13 years. Despite the law stating the marriageable age of girl as 18, most marriages involve the under-aged girls. Another plight of the matter is that the bridegrooms in such marriages often have their age above 50 years.

Why Guardians of Muslim Society are against such Practices?

When the media persons ask such questions to them, the so-called guardians of Muslim society don’t have any answers to the plight of women who undergo this ordeal due to the distorted way of using the Talaq System. This mentality has forced some forward-looking and educated Muslim women to go for the legal remedies for this distortion. The Muslim woman activists allege that the Muftis and other religious scholars do not want the women to go out of their control. They further allege that the so-called guardians of the Muslim society wanted to keep the Triple Talaq System to practice the polygamy. If we look at the Muslim men from the past and recent past, many are found to practice the polygamy by forcing their first wives to submission under the threat of issuing Triple Talaq. Due to the fear of the stigma in the society, the Muslim women reluctantly allow their husband to go for second or third marriages. The guardians of the Muslim society who are primarily men do not want this practice questioned by any other authorities in the country. That is why the AIMPLB, which is an umbrella organization of Maulavis, religious scholars and other reputed people, do not want to even discuss this draconian practice in public. They fear that their stranglehold on women would disappear if they bring this system under the purview of the courts in the country. They fully know that they would not be able to stand before the Indian courts if the lawmakers bring changes in Indian constitution to include the Muslim law.