Muslim Women's Rights Day

Tags: Important Days

On August 1, 2019, Muslim women got freedom from the social evil called 'triple talaq', hence August 1 has been recorded in the history of India as 'Muslim Women's Rights Day'.

Important facts

• Muslim Women's Rights Day is celebrated on 1st August in the backdrop of Triple Talaq Bill which was approved in Parliament on 1st August 2019.

• The Triple Talaq Bill was a major milestone in freeing Muslim women from the shackles of social evil of the conditions of divorce.

• Shah Bano Begum & Ors Vs Mo Ahmed Khan', 'Shayra Bano Vs Union of India and Others' laid the foundation stone for this move.

• In her writ petition, Shayra Bano had sought the Supreme Court to declare the three practices talaq-e-biddat, polygamy, nikah-halala unconstitutional.

• Cases were being registered citing violation of Articles 14, 15, 21, 25 of the Constitution.

About triple talaq law

• Triple talaq is called 'Talaq-e-bidat'.

• In this, the husband says three times in one go... Divorce-divorce-divorce. It is valid only if both the husband and wife agree to divorce each other.

• But it has been seen that in almost 100 percent of the cases, only the husband has the consent.

• The bill was passed in the Lok Sabha in December 2017, but got stuck in the Rajya Sabha.

• After this, in September 2018, the government issued an ordinance to ban triple talaq.

• Declaring triple talaq as an offence in this ordinance, there is a provision for imprisonment of up to three years and fine for the husband.

• The Supreme Court called it a violation of Articles 14 and 21 of the Indian Constitution, which give equal rights to all citizens.

• According to Section 3 of this bill, it will be illegal and unlawful to pronounce triple talaq in writing or by any electronic means.

Success of law

• Ever since the law was passed, the cases of triple talaq have come down by 82%.

Which countries have banned triple talaq?

• Egypt was the first country to ban triple talaq in 1929.

• Egypt is followed by Sudan, Pakistan (in 1956), Malaysia (in 1969), Bangladesh (in 1972), Iraq (in 1959) and Syria (in 1953).

• In recent years, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Iran, Cyprus, Qatar, Jordan, Brunei, Algeria, as well as India, have banned the practice.