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What Muslim Women Want

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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]A view from the ground

By Rashme Sehgal

What do Muslim women on the ground feel about the issue of triple talaq which they refer to as `teen talaq’? Speaking to a cross-section of Muslim women from the towns of Saharanpur, Muzzafarnagar, Roorkee, Pauri and Dehra Dun provided an unusual insight into this crucial issue which will be heard by the apex court in the weeks to come.

One aspect that becomes obvious is that the plight of Muslim women is very similar to that of their Hindu sisters. Muslim Personal Law is based on the Shariat where marriage is a contract entered between the bride and bridegroom, with the husband announcing a meher for his wife which will be given to her in case the marriage is annulled which can often be the case since Islam permits unilateral divorce.

According to the Quran, the pronouncement of talaq can be uttered three times with intervals of three periods. These correspond to the menstrual cycles of the woman. But there are other Muslims who maintain the Shariat has stipulated a time period of three months between each talaq. Unfortunately, triple talaq is being pronounced over mobile phones, postcards and via the internet and the casual manner in which these words are uttered has raised the ire of the Muslim women.

Thirty-five-year-old sociology postgraduate and mother of two children, Shayara Bano, from Kashipur in Uttarakhand, was so incensed at receiving a verbal divorce from her husband that she decided to challenge the constitutional validity of  the Muslim personal law regarding divorce by taking the matter in the Supreme Court.

Late last year, Bano claims she was approached by members of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board who asked her to withdraw her petition from the Supreme Court as it was giving the Muslim community a ‘bad name’ but she declined stating that while she had suffered enormously at the utterance of these ‘three words’ she was fighting to ensure other women did not find themselves in a similar situation.

Dehra Dun-based Gulistan Khanam, who runs an NGO titled Sarvardharam Sadhbhavna Samiti (SSS) says triple talaq is easily misused, citing the shocking example of a 90-year-old Muslim man, Abdul Rehman, who divorced  his aged  wife on the grounds that “she did not listen to him”!

She also regrets that several detrimental Hindu practices have made their way into Muslim society. The scourge of dowry is now rampant in Muslim households where parents of brides-to-be are expected to provide a car/motorcycle as essential at the time of the marriage, besides a range of electronic items. Woe betide the unfortunate bride who fails to bring these ‘essential’ items. This is a far cry from the nikah or marriage contract, where the groom had to provide a substantial settlement in favour of his wife.

Ruksana Bano from Saharanpur says she was turned out of her marital home by her husband, mother-in-law and sister-in-law for the lack of a big dowry.

Said Ruksana, “No marriage is solemnised if these dowry items are not provided.  My in-laws expected me to bring a fridge, a TV set and a car and since my parents failed to provide them, four years into my marriage, my in-laws connived to throw me out.  Despite a panchayat being called, my husband has not given me my meher of Rs 30,000.

“In desperation, I have filed a complaint at the Mahila Ayog office. Since my husband never showed up for the hearings, I have also filed a civil case against him. I was divorced by teen talaq. I am relieved that I no longer have to live with my in-laws who had often threatened to burn me alive.”

Burning of brides is on the rise in Muslim households, and records provided by the Allahabad High Court indicate that in the last decade, over 20 per cent of dowry deaths out of 120 cases before them occurred in Muslim homes.

Merissa Begum who presently lives in Dehra Dun was also tortured by her in laws for not bringing an ‘adequate’ dowry and finally her mother-in-law connived to have her thrown out of the house. Fortunately for her, her husband, a tailor by profession, stood by her. They moved to Dehra Dun to escape the torture inflicted upon her by her in-laws.

Said Merissa, “My father owned a small grocery shop which ran into hard times. He did his best for us which obviously was not what my mother-in-law had expected. When I left my in-laws house, I was not allowed to bring any of my personal belongings with me but the saving grace is that my husband supported me.”

The All India Personal Law Board claims that there is less divorce amongst Muslim women than women from other communities. But Gulistan Khanam disagrees with these claims.

Not only does she believe there has been an exponential increase in the number of divorces across all communities but she also believes teen talaq is facilitating the process.

Khanam said, “My experience of working with women in marital conflict during the last decade has shown that there has been a 30 per cent rise in the number of divorces amongst all communities including Muslims.”

Her explanation for this trend may sound clichéd but she is willing to stick her neck out. “There is one breed of husbands who are plain incompetent. They are boozers, they do no work and are not willing to change. Many also have affairs. I once tried to counsel a man in his mid-twenties who was a womaniser. His reply was, ’Hum raat ke shehzada hain; Hindustan azaad hein, hum bhi azaad hein. If my wife does not like my behaviour, she is welcome to leave’.”

It goes without saying that the wife’s increasing protests saw her being served with a triple talaq. However, many wives are not willing to take this punishment lying down.

“When a marriage breaks down, the women opt to file their complaints in the Mahila Aayog (Crime Against Women Cell) and their next step is to file a criminal and civil suit against the husband. These cases can drag on for years but the women are dogged and are determined to fight it out,” said Khanam.

Some Muslim organisations do not accept that there has been an exponential increase in divorce within the community.  Executive member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, Asma Zehra, has asserted that the incidence of divorce among Muslims is much lower than the prevalence in other communities. Also, women have maintenance rights even after the divorce.

Zehra further pointed out, “Muslim women can also go for remarriage to begin a new life.”

The AIMPLB has gone to the extent of stating in an affidavit submitted to the apex court that if triple talaq is discontinued, men may well resort to murdering or burning their wives in order to get rid of them. In its affidavit, the AIMPLB has even declared that if a serious discord develops between a couple and the husband does not want to live with the wife, legal compulsions of time-consuming separation proceedings and expenses may deter him from taking the legal course. In such instances, he may resort to illegal, criminal ways of murdering or burning her alive the affidavit has stated.

The Muslim community is sharply divided on this issue. Khanam cites the example of some women who are not able to reconcile with the reality that their husbands have deserted them and found other women for themselves. 

Sometimes a man takes a second wife but refuses to divorce the first one. Islam permits men to have four wives. The first wife finds herself in a bind. Islam permits her to ask for divorce in the form of ‘khula’ but she has to forgo her ‘meher’. Further, there is social disapproval and maulvis often make it difficult by demanding money from her to grant the divorce.

It is clear that these festering issues need to be addressed urgently. Activists believe the government, the courts and society can no longer turn a blind eye to the plight of women suffering due to this practice. Since the community and its leadership have been unable to resolve the issue, the remedy lies in the courts.

As Noorjehan Safia Niaz, co-founder of Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA), and a petitioner in the Supreme Court against triple talaq, has pointed out, “No one can stop the citizen of this country from approaching the court. That is a right Muslim women also have.”

Lead Photo by UNI[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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Bharat Shiksha Summit 2025: Supreme Court judge JK Maheshwari calls upon NLUs to improve quality of faculty to uplift legal education

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Supreme Court judge JK Maheshwari said on Thursday that the level of faculty in the national law universities should be improved to uplift the state of legal education in the country along with their standards.

Speaking at the Bharat Shiksha Summit 2025’s session on Legal Education and Training: Bridging Theory and Practice, Justice Maheshwari said practical legal training should also be improved upon and revitalised. In this context, he noted that moot court competitions are held regularly and should focus on real-world cases that land up in India’s courts instead of a corporate law case as is often the case with moot courts.

Referring to the ongoing debate on Artificial Intelligence, Justice Maheshwari said artificial intelligence is just that: artificial intelligence. Intelligence is natural and AI is man-made, he underlined. Speaking on the necessity of inculcating ethics, he said ethical training in legal education is its soul. While people cannot be trained in ethics since it comes with birth and basic nurturing, a sound moral base is required to be ethical, he said. Brushing away the abstract nature of the word ethics, he said it is a very real lived experience and needs to be built into legal professionals if they do not have it.

Ahead of Justice Maheshwari, Attorney General of India R. Venkataramani handled the questions put forward by National Law Institute University, Bhopal Vice-Chancellor Prof. (Dr.) S. Surya Prakash on the standardization of legal education by the Bar Council of India with disarming grace. The AG said law students should first of all understand where they intend to go in the social order that prevails in the country.

Venkataramani said law is a part of the social order and its students, throughout their lives, have to keep in mind the many divisions that exist in society including the economic ones. The Supreme Court of India is a mirror to Indian society and solves many of its problems that find their way to the courtroom.

He exhorted law students to ask themselves every minute if they and their work will make any difference to the world and of what kind, and continue to practice the self-questioning well into their careers.

Earlier, Prof. (Dr.) S. Surya Prakash had said legal education in India was coming up in three streams of law colleges, state law universities and national law universities. All three differ in terms of standards, quality, facilities and cost, he said. Thus, education has itself become a divisive force, he noted.

With such varying standards, Prof Surya Prakash appealed to the Bar Council of India to be strict and set standards since it equates the LLB degree given by all three streams at par.

National Law University Delhi Vice-Chancellor Prof GS Bajpai said the ball is in the BCI’s court to fix quality issues plaguing legal education. He made an earnest appeal to all universities to be liberal spaces that would allow students to exchange ideas, however frivolous they are, so that the campus is free from the rigor mortis of academic drudgery.

He said NLU Delhi has introduced a no-detention policy as an example of free-flow of ideas, and it is being examined for implementing in other NLUs. Prof Bajpai asked students to be active as citizens, especially in legal education.

Senior Advocate Pradeep Rai said English has played the role of a connecting language in India over time and said Hindi has not achieved that status because it has not made room for words from other languages. He said people over the last many decades have not used Hindi as an assimilatory language. On legal education, he said efforts should be made consciously to evolve and improve legal education despite the many roadblocks.

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Kiren Rijiju defends Waqf Amendment bill, says no non-Muslim can interfere in board’s affairs

Union Minister Kiren Rijiju has stated that only Muslims can manage and benefit from the Waqf Board, as he defended the 2025 amendment bill ensuring more accountability and transparency.

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Union Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on Thursday strongly defended the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2025, amid ongoing debate in the Rajya Sabha. He dismissed apprehensions that the bill might negatively impact Muslim interests and emphasized that the Waqf Board’s operations, management, and benefits will remain exclusive to the Muslim community.

Rijiju rejects allegations, outlines purpose of amendment

Addressing criticism, Rijiju categorically denied that the bill undermines constitutional rights or religious autonomy. “Non-Muslims cannot interfere in Waqf Board affairs. Its creation, management and beneficiaries are confined to Muslims,” he stated. He added that any Muslim can still manage property under a trust without hindrance.

Explaining the role of the Waqf Board, Rijiju likened it to a Charity Commissioner, responsible for ensuring proper management of religious endowments. The proposed amendments aim to boost transparency, enforce accountability, and enhance the Board’s capacity.

Ownership proof made mandatory to avoid misuse

A significant provision in the amendment mandates documented proof of ownership before designating any property as Waqf. This move seeks to correct past practices where claims by the Waqf Board could automatically label properties as Waqf without verifying ownership.

Extensive consultations and public feedback

Rijiju highlighted the bill’s extensive pre-legislative process. According to him, over one crore suggestions were received from the public, and a Parliamentary Committee carried out consultations across ten major cities, including Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, and Hyderabad.

He traced earlier reform attempts, citing the 1976 Congress-era inquiry and the 2006 Sachar Committee Report, both of which emphasized the need for digitisation and strengthening of the Waqf Board. The number of Waqf properties has increased from 4.9 lakh to 8.72 lakh, with their income potential now significantly higher than the Rs 163 crore annual income reported earlier.

Implementing long-pending recommendations

Rijiju mentioned findings from the earlier Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) led by K. Rehman Khan, which pointed to poor infrastructure, lack of skilled manpower, and insufficient funds. The JPC had recommended establishing a centralized data bank and implementing structured leasing policies.

He accused previous governments of inaction, stating, “Committees were set up during the Congress and UPA rule, yet they failed to act. The Modi government is implementing reforms that they did not dare to.”

Contrasting the present and past efforts, he highlighted that while the UPA-led JPC in 2013 involved 13 members and consulted 14 states, the current JPC had 31 members, held 36 meetings, and consulted stakeholders across 25 states.

Rijiju asserted that the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2025, is a step toward ensuring efficiency, transparency, and better utilisation of Waqf properties, all while safeguarding the interests and autonomy of the Muslim community.

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Bharat Shiksha Summit 2025: DTU VC Prof. Dhananjay Joshi says train teachers for fulfilling Viksit Bharat aim

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Delhi Teachers University Vice-Chancellor Professor Dhananjay Joshi said that India is a country which gives due importance to teachers as it is a Guru Pradhan country.

Speaking at the session Education Without Borders at the Bharat Shiksha Summit 2025, Prof. Joshi said the need of the hour is to train teachers in the country. “Today there is a need to save teachers. We need to work on teachers,” he said.

On the critical importance of teacher-centric reforms within the New Education Policy 2020, Prof. Joshi argued that focusing on the development of teachers is essential to creating a Viksit Bharat through a well-equipped and motivated teaching workforce.

Prof. (Dr.) Prabhat Ranjan, Vice-Chancellor of DY Patil International University, noted the importance of the NEP in veering away from the focus on English and to mother tongues in the country. He shared his university’s innovative approaches aimed at redefining education in India and emphasized the importance of bridging gaps between traditional and digital learning methodologies.

Dismissing university rankings put out annually by publications, Prof. Ranjan said the work of an educator is to ensure students learn leaving all such attempts at publicity on the wayside. There is no other focus required for an educational institution apart from focusing on students and research, he added. Rankings will come and go, he said.

Underlining the importance of being open to learning at any stage in life, Prof. Ranjan said that there is a need to learn new things every moment.

IGNOU Sanskrit Professor Kaushal Panwar, a Bharat Shiksha Sammelan awardee, said he was proud to be an Indian and what is present in this country cannot be anywhere else. 


Educators at the summit underscored how access to online tutorials and educational content has transformed learning. They highlighted that the students, even in rural areas, now have unprecedented access to knowledge. However, they also stressed the evolving role of teachers, particularly in “flip classrooms,” where students engage in discussions after reviewing study materials on their own.

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