A PIL has been filed in the Supreme Court to recognise section 2 of the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937, and declare misogynist ‘Nikah Halala’ and polygamy as illegal and unconstitutional.
Sameena Begum, a Muslim woman, who filed this petition before the Supreme Court for abolishing misogynist Islamic practices claimed that she has been facing life threats from residents and gangsters in Okhla Vihar, where she tried to rent a house. She has alleged that such threats are being made with a view to force her to withdraw her case.
Begum has herself been a victim of Islamic misogyny. She was first married in 1999 and had two sons. After continuous abuse and a police case, she was given triple talaq. However, she was forced to marry again, this time to an already married man. She was again given triple talaq over the phone in an unreasonable manner when she became pregnant for the third time. Now, she lives alone with her three children.
Sameena has said she filed the petition in order to ensure justice not only for herself, but also for other Muslim women who have faced similar hardships. Sameena is not the only Muslim woman who has been aggrieved by such stone-age practices surviving in India solely because of Islamic appeasement. Subaida, a journalist, along with Sameena Begum, became the first ‘victims’ of polygamy in Islamic law which allows Muslim men to have upto four wives, to knock the doors of the top court. Subaida has approached the Supreme Court through BJP leader and advocate Ashwini Upadhyay who urged the supreme court to declare nikah halala and polygamy as unconstitutional being in violation of fundamental rights. He also argued before the Supreme Court to declare ‘Nikah Halala‘ as rape under 375 of the IPC and declare ‘polygamy’, an offence under 494 of the IPC. It must be noted that currently Muslim men are exempted from the offence of bigamy under Section 494 of the Penal Code.
However, it seems that fringe Muslim elements are unable to tolerate how Muslim women are finally putting up a fight to exercise their fundamental rights. Sameena, a social worker who runs an organisation known as ‘Mission Talaq’ stated that she has been threatened with rape and murder if she does not take back her plea. She added that when she reached to take possession of a rental property, the locals gathered and the son of the landlord called her out for filing a plea before the apex court to prohibit the practices of polygamy and nikah halala.
Narrating her ordeal, the Muslim woman added that on June 27, some men attacked her at her Okhla Vihar residence. The men allegedly entered her apartment and “tore off her clothes” in order to teach her a lesson. She said, “All my belongings were thrown back into the tempo. They said Shariat ko apne haathon mein le rahi hai (she has taken Shariat in her own hands). They tore my clothes and said they would burn my child alive and rape me. They asked me to abide by all their diktats and withdraw the PIL.” This shows the kind of blatant appeasement towards Islam in India, which allows the fringe elements to attack the dignity and honour of women if they try to fight their way out of fundamentalism and exercise their fundamental rights.
Practices of nikah halala and polygamy are in absolute conflict with the philosophy of the Constitution of India. It is a direct attack on the equality, dignity and freedom of Muslim women and therefore, an outright violation of Article 14, 19 and 21. Women like Sameena have every right to demand that Muslim women should no longer be treated as cattle. Such practices are no longer acceptable. The legislature and the government have already failed to protect them against such social evils, now it is the prime duty of the state to safeguard women like Sameena. This also raises pertinent questions about the liberal-leftist cabal that claims to be concerned about “women rights” but takes no cognisance when people of a particular religion are openly violating a woman’s dignity.