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Women’s rights a development issue, don’t politicise triple talaq: Modi


Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi,  Oct 24, 2016: Women’s rights is a development issue and people shouldn’t politicise a debate on triple talaq, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday, speaking for the first time on mounting calls to reform Islamic personal laws.

 

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At a rally in Uttar Pradesh’s Mahoba, Modi hit out at “some parties” who wanted to keep Muslim women bereft of natural rights for “vote-bank politics” – a possible reference to opposition parties that have countered the government’s move to seek public opinion on banning triple talaq.

“I request people who participate in TV debates, don’t make women rights into Muslim-Hindu issue. Women’s right is a development issue,” Modi said, according to ANI.

“Please don’t make triple talaaq a political matter, let’s take proper measures to give equal rights to women as well.”

Modi’s comments come weeks after the law commission circulated a questionnaire asking for comments on banning practices such as triple talaq and drafting of a uniform civil code, amid growing calls by women to outlaw codes that are gender discriminatory.

The influential All India Muslim Personal Law Board has criticized this move and accused the government of stoking an “internal war” but the Centre has rebuffed the charge, saying its only concern was gender justice.

“If a Hindu murders a girl child in the womb, he will go to jail. Similarly, is it fair that a man says talaq thrice and a Muslims woman’s life is ruined?” Modi asked.

India has separate sets of personal laws for each religion governing marriage, divorce, succession, adoption and maintenance. While Hindu law overhaul began in the 1950s and continues, activists have long argued that Muslim personal law has remained mostly unchanged.

The key issues here are marriage and divorce norms. Under personal laws, such as the Shariat Act, a Muslim man can divorce his wife by uttering the Urdu word for divorce -- talaq – three times. The same laws also allow polygamy among Muslims. These emanate from the shariah, the Islamic legal code that varies widely from community to community.

Although the practice of so-called triple talaq is intended to prolong a divorce so that there is room for conciliation, it has often resulted in the opposite.

In recent years, Muslim women have increasingly spoken out against this and have approached the judiciary for redressal from what they say are unconstitutional codes that discriminate on gender. The Supreme Court is hearing three separate petitions by Muslim women on banning triple talaq.


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