Muslim women against triple talaq: Asaduddin Owaisi

Hyderabad: MIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on Thursday put up an impassioned opposition to the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights and Marriage) Bill, the triple talaq Bill, in the Lok Sabha, stating that it has been rejected by Muslim women.

“Why have you decriminalised homosexuality and criminalised triple talaq? Because it will be used against us. Sexual minority got a choice in Section 377, then why not religious minorities,” he asked.

Stating that he was representing the voice of Muslim women being a father, brother, son and uncle, Mr Owaisi said if the Bill is passed great injustice would caused to them and they who would be forced to on roads.

Stating that Muslims were against the move to criminalise triple talaq as it was against the right to faith and belief, Mr Owaisi said: “If your faith is your faith, then my faith should also be my faith. Your intentions are not clean. You can bring your own law, but we will not forfeit our religion.”

He asked the government not to confuse the people of the country in the name of the Supreme Court verdict. “The Supreme Court never said that it is unconstitutional,” Mr Owaisi said. “When the Supreme Court decriminalised adultery, you just kept quiet. When the apex court never said that triple talaq is unconstitutional you are criminalising it.”

He said while adultery had been decriminalised, and there was nothing to stop men from indulging in extramarital affairs, triple talaq was being made a criminal offence.

He asked that when the law prescribed a one-year jail as punishment for a Hindu husband, why was it set at three years for a Muslim husband. He said the punishment for a fatal road accident is two years, why jail a Muslim husband for three years.

“Your dream of having more Muslims in jail will be achieved. You are forcing a Muslim woman to file an FIR against her husband,” he said and requested the government to send the Bill to a select committee.

While proposing the deletion of the provision for punishing the husband, he said that marriage was a contract in Islam. If the husband wants to divorce his wife, he has to pay mehr. There was ample protection for women in the Shariat.

Mr Owaisi later told mediapersons outside Parliament, “Yeh kanoon sirf aur sirf Muslim mahilaon ko road par lane ka hai, unko barbad aur kamzor karna hai. Aur jo Muslim mard hain unko jail mein daalne ka hai. Yahi is kanoon ka ghalat istemal hoga app dekhna. (The intention of the Bill is to drag the Muslim women to streets and destroy them and to jail Muslim husbands. This Bill will certainly be misused, you will see).”