The Supreme Court judgement on instant triple talaq brought an end to the 11-year long struggle of millions of Muslim women against the practice. “This is a landmark judgement in favour of Muslim women,” said Farhat, sister of union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. Farhat, who was divorced by her husband for giving birth to a girl child, runs a non-political voluntary organisation for the welfare of the victims of triple talaq and domestic violence. Hailing the Narendra Modi government at the Centre, Farhat said no other regime ever gave a thought to the grave issue that had ruined the lives of many women. “I thank Modiji for taking up the issue and ensuring that it reaches its end,” she said. A year after the marriage, her in-laws forced her to go for prenatal sex determination test. “I refused to go for the test. When I delivered a baby girl my husband refused to accept her,” she added. She was also subjected to domestic violence and her husband gave divorce to her without any prior information. She further said, “I was dejected but instead of giving up, I decided to fight back and approached the court. It has been almost 11 years and the matter is still pending”. She founded an NGO ‘Mera Haq’ in 2014 to fight for justice to triple talaq victims.“I didn’t want anyone else to suffer and founded an NGO to help women in distress. Within months, the numbers of victims approaching me began to swell,” she said. She has more than 200 associates across the country to whom the NGO offers free legal aid and financial help.
The sister of the union minister has suffered a lot because of this evil tradition. Many at times she received death threats. She recounts one of such threats wherein she helped an a Triple Talaq victim, who was allegedly thrashed and confined to a room without food for a month by her husband. The victim died during the medical treatment in Bareilly district of Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday.
The case of the triple talaq victim, identified as Razia, was taken up by the NGO Mera Haq. She was admitted in the hospital along with her six-year-old son. Farhat Naqvi, sister of the Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and founder of Mera Haq, told media that Razia was given triple talaq by her husband Nahim about 45 days ago. But even after giving her triple talaq, Nahim did not let her go and locked her up in a room along with her son. After locking, beating and denying her food and water for a month, Nahim then left her to a relative’s house.When her sister was informed about her ordeal, she brought her home. “We went to the police station to lodge a complaint against Nahim and his family members but the police did not register any case,” the victim’s sister said.When the police did not help, Razia’s sister approached the NGO, which admitted the victim in a hospital and bore all her medical expenses. About a week ago when her condition deteriorated, she was shifted to Lucknow for further treatment. The victim came back to Bareilly only three days ago and died on Tuesday due to torture, long starvation and dehydration.
And Now, a prominent Muslim cleric from Bareilly has said that two Muslim women, who raised voice against triple talaq practice, will be ostracized from Islam. Farhat Naqvi, sister of Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Nida Khan, daughter-in-law of the Aala Hazrat family, will be ostracized from Islam. Reacting to the ‘firman’ against her, an undeterred Nida hit out at the cleric saying where was he when Muslim women were victimized in the name of triple talaq, nikah Shalala and polygamy. Now thousands of Nidas have emerged and their voice cannot be suppressed,” she said.
Nida said the All India Muslim Personal Law Board was created under the British rule and it should not be authorized to pass rulings on Muslims. Oppressing women has now become a “fashion”, but our constitution has given us rights, she said. Slamming the Aala Hazrat family for threatening her, Nida said the family has 14 cases of triple talaq. This, in turn, exhibits the utmost bigotry and dignity of the highest echelons of the Islamic trumpets in the country.
