Over 200 men have signed on the demand for abolishing triple talaq and nikah halala (a practice where a woman is expected to consummate a marriage if she wants to get back to her divorced husband).
In a press statement titled 'Muslim Men for Gender Justice', the initiators of the signature campaign called it an intent of declaration and not an organisation's name under which signatures have been taken. The 225 Muslim men from across India, like Resul Pookutty (Oscar award winner), Saeed Mirza (film maker), Javed Siddiqi, Hasan Kamaal, Anjum Rajabali, Shafaat Khan, Talat Jaani, and Feroz Abbas Khan have signed for the campaign.
Javed Anand, one of the initiators and general secretary of Muslims for Secular Democracy, said, "The reason for the signature campaign was that a woman's group took 50,000 signatures. People were asking what about Muslim men? What is their say? This was in response to that. We feel it is necessary to speak out. We intend to send these to national women's commission and may be also to national commission for minorities."
The statement signed by them reads: "We, the undersigned, believe that gender equality and justice are human rights issues which must be as much a matter of concern for men as for women. If anything, it is more so men's obligation to cry a halt to patriarchy, particularly when it is sought to be perpetuated in the name of God. We therefore fully support the campaign launched by the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA) and other Muslim organisations and individuals for the abolition, and declaration as illegal, of triple talaq (instant divorce) and nikaah-halala as being practised in India."
Complementing BMMA for its initiative in collecting 50,000 signatures from across the country in support of their demand, the statement added, "Triple talaq violates the constitutional principles of gender parity and non-discrimination. Thus this obnoxious instant divorce practice is both un-Quranic and un-constitutional .....BMMA has even documented some cases where qazis not only justify and legitimise nikaah-halala, but even offer their own "services" as temporary husbands. What could be more disgraceful than this?"
Noorjehan Safia Niaz, founder of BMMA said, "Triple talaq is nowhere mentioned in Quran. If it was a practice in Hadees and Shariah, it must be required at that time. You cannot have laws in IPC that do not work. There is no point of such laws. Similarly when the need is there, they can think of it. May then it was useful for women."
