One Day Workshop on “Dispelling Rhetorics: Law of Divorce and Gender Inequality in Islam”(April 29, 2017) @ Indian Law Institute(ILI) Delhi

India has been witnessing the conflict between the Minority Rights and gender justice whenever Muslim women come in front of the Apex court challenging the violation of their rights under Muslim Personal law. This was either due to unawareness of Muslim women about her rights under Islamic law or at the initiative of those who have never taken trouble to read an elementary book of Islamic law and try to understand it in its true nature and perspective. Justice Krishna Iyer has rightly said that when judicial committee of Downing Street interprets Manu and Mohammad of India and Arabia marginal distortions are inevitable. Some of our friends who consulted nothing but this distorted version of Islamic law therefore their misunderstanding about Islamic law are obvious and not surprising. Time and again in India, debates on Muslim personal law are highly covered by media getting together with those who are not familiar about Islamic Law and they always presented it as a case of Muslim women v. Muslim community. This legal struggle of Muslim women and defending position of Muslim community has become a strong weapon in the hands of state and other interested parties to raise the demand for Uniform Civil Code (UCC). Those who argue for UCC have not been able to convince the minority groups who regard the call for UCC as a threat to their Personal laws. The Right wing group concerns on the issue make it doubtful whether the purpose of UCC is to remove the gender inequality or to maintain superiority of one law over the other. The present day debates on this issue have nothing about substantial of Islamic law and the rights guaranteed to women under it. Since the debate around Triple talaq is at its height today therefore, we confine ourselves to the issue pertaing to divorce.The type of dissolution permitted by Islam is described in four ways namely one from husband’s side that is known as Talaq, the other from the wife’s side is known as Khula mutatis mutandis to man’s right of talaq. The third type of divorce is that the parties can be separated through mutual consent known as Mubaraat. Islam of course does not like that bedroom secrets should be public and disclosed before the court because husband and wife are declared Libas (cloth) of each other in the holy Quran and that is why if the parties and their arbitrators resolve their matter then it would be in the interest of family and society. But, as the last option the Qadi/Court is permitted to get the marriage dissolved if it is broken down; this is known as Faskh (Judicial Divorce). Under Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939 the court can dissolve the marriage on eight grounds at the initiative of wife and the ninth ground talks about “any other ground prescribed or permitted under Muslim law”. Similarly the concept of intervening marriage (Halala) has taken a bad shape in Indian Muslim societies. However this is not a law but a remedy provided to women. The true law is that if a woman who is divorced by her husband marries someone else and that person dies per chance per chance per chance or she is divorced from her husband, then in such an instance as a remedy to women who is viewed by the society in bad light and is vulnerable to its allegations is permitted by the law that with her consent she can marry her former husband. This is the concept of intervening marriage and nothing more than that. The main themes of the Workshop to be deliberated are as under : 1. Mens’s right to divorce: Triple Talaq and Intervening Marriage (halala) 2. Right to Khula: Unveiling Gender Equality Concerns in India 3. Muslim Law Reforms in India: Problems and Prospects

Rs. 350/- per participant.

The main themes of the Workshop to be deliberated are as under :

1. Mens’s right to divorce: Triple Talaq and Intervening Marriage (halala)

2. Right to Khula: Unveiling Gender Equality Concerns in India

3. Muslim Law Reforms in India: Problems and Prospects

Coordinator Furqan Ahmad Professor, ILI 9871551475

For Guidelines, Registration Form, Online Payment, CLICK HERE

Facebook Comments