Majority of Indian Muslim women want to do away with oral triple talaaq: Study

By NewsGram Staff-Writer

New Delhi: When a study asked Indian Muslim women whether the system of oral triple "talaaq" be banned, an overwhelming majority (92.1%) of them said "Yes", according to a Times of India report.

Divorcing one's wife by saying the word "talaaq" (divorce) three times, has been a practice unique to the Muslim community and it has been legally adopted in the Muslim personal law. But, many consider it discriminatory as only the husband can divorce his wife and not vice versa.

The study which interviewed around 4,710 Muslim women, was conducted by NGO Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA) which has been working towards bringing reforms to the Muslim personal law. The study was conducted between July and December, 2013.

The study found that around 91.7% of Muslim women do not want their husbands to have a second marriage. Other findings include: 73% Muslim women were from families earning less than Rs. 50,000 per year; 55% were married before reaching 18-years; 78% were homemakers; 82% had no property in their name; and 53% Muslim women reported that they had faced domestic violence.

The report also revealed that around 83% Muslim women wanted an arbitration process before the divorce was granted and 83.3% women believed that Muslim family law should be codified.

The Times of India report quotes Noorjehan Safia Niaz, one of the authors of the report as saying: "An overwhelming number of women demands reforms in Muslim personal law. They want an elaborate codified law based on the Quranic justice framework to cover matters such as age of marriage, divorce procedures, polygamy, maintenance and custody of children."