Muslim women continue to live under the threat of instant triple talaq despite the fact that the Bharatiya government declared the practice unlawful in 2019. The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019, was brought into effect in September 2019 to end the practice where Muslim men could unilaterally end their marriage by simply uttering the word talaq thrice in a row.

The law not just made such a practice null and void but also provided a three-year jail term to any man who practised it. Despite the law, cases have come to the fore where the practice of triple talaq continues illegally.

A case of a man uttering talaq thrice in a fit of rage in front of his wife was reported from Uttar Pradesh’s Shahjahanpur district. However, when the man Mohammed Salman wanted to stop his wife from leaving, a cleric named Guddu Haji said that the talaq was valid and that to stay in the nikah he would have to make his wife undergo halala.

Salman’s wife was forced to agree to undergo halala with his brother Irfan. She later filed a case of rape and also under the Muslim women protection act against Salman and Irfan. The practice is also prevalent among the financially well-to-do Muslim strata of society. “Last month, a woman named Rumana from Gujarat, who was given instant talaq by her husband Ali Habibi over a video call, filed a case against him under the triple talaq and dowry laws, alleging that his family took Rs 80 lakh from her family at the time of their wedding”, notes Swarajya Mag.

In June, a woman was removed from her in-laws’ house 15 days after her nikah in UP’s Firozabad district. Her husband Mohammed Rizwan threatened her with talaq if she failed to bring more dowry. An incident of a woman being given instant triple talaq over the phone by her husband for allegedly not giving birth to a male child was reported in May last year from Jharkhand.

Similarly, government class 2 employee Sarfaraz Khan Bihari was sentenced to one-year imprisonment and a fine of 5000 by the Palampur court in Gujarat’s Banaskantha District for giving triple talaq to his wife. Most often demands of dowry and male child are the reasons behind instant triple talaq but cases of Muslim women being divorced or threatened with triple talaq for having a difference of opinion have also come to the fore.

“In Basarikpur village of Ballia district in UP, a woman, Nagma, was thrown out of the house by her husband for making a painting of her tying rakhi to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In another case, a woman was threatened with triple talaq for voting for the Bharatiya Janata Party in an election”, writes Swati Goel Sharma.

Despite Union Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi’s claims of cases have come down, activists and experts state that wife desertion without financial maintenance is rampant. It has also come to light that many Muslim men are compelling their wives to give them Khula, a practice where a woman can divorce her husband by returning the ‘mahr’ amount. The woman gets no maintenance in such divorces. This is being done to circumvent the triple talaq law.

Many Muslim women are choosing Hindu husbands due to fear of triple talaq. One such case has come forth from UP’s Bijnor District where a Muslim woman Amreena Ansari (21) married Pappu Kori following Hindu rituals. Amreena said that her friend who is also a Muslim was given triple talaq by her husband due to a trivial matter. Amreena said that she was deeply affected by this and hence chose to marry a Hindu.

Amreena left her home on 16 December 2022 and reached Bareilly with Kori. She embraced Hindu Dharma and was renamed Radhika. The couple got married on December 26 at Agastya Muni Ashram.

According to Dainik Bhaskar, Amreena’s family has filed a missing person complaint that the police are investigating. The report further notes that her father Rahman Ansari and eldest brother Ataul Rahman Ansari have disowned Amreena.

It is pertinent to note that while instant triple talaq has been banned, the practice of triple talaq wherein ‘talaq’ is announced by the Muslim man over three successive menstrual cycles of his wife is still legal.

(Featured Image Source: Swarajya Mag)