KOZHIKODE: “The Supreme Court verdict banning triple talaq is historic ensuring justice for women in the Muslim community. It is also a victory for our democracy,” according to V.P. Suhra, head of Nisa, an organisation here fighting for reforms in Muslim personal law and supporting a uniform civil code. “The verdict would save many women who lead an oppressed life fearing triple talaq, which provided unbridled freedom to men to divorce woman,” she said. Nisa (‘woman’ in Arabic) was one of the organisations that raised the demand in the Supreme Court to ban triple talaq, challenging the threats of extremists in her own community.
“I hope the proposed legislation will also ensure justice to women,” she told DC. On the suggestion that religious boards can give suggestions on legislation, she said “it should not be a religious affair. All personal laws-- Hindu, Muslim or Christian--are anti-women. The religious bodies and boards constituted on religious grounds would try to push in man- centric religious interests,” she said. It would jeopardise the spirit of justice and democracy. “If all religions start enacting their own laws, it would be going back to the days of anarchy,” she added.
A victim of triple talaq, Suhra started her crusade against it and other outdated customs of community when she was exposed to the ordeal in her teens. “Now looking back, I am satisfied that those days of suppression and torture in the early 70s moulded an innocent girl like me into an activist, brave enough to give voice to many of my ilk in the community,” she said. Her fight to ensure justice for Muslim women entered the open space with the controversial Shah Bano case verdict in 1985 which rocked the conservative religious fortresses across the nation.
Reminiscing about the old days, Suhra said that she and her three children were under threat of religious fanatics. There was pressure on Suhra to back out and compromise. “There were none to protect and support us. But I didn’t budge. At times I went from one venue to the other with my children, two boys and a girl. When they threatened to finish off my family, I said “you can do whatever you like.”
“Gradually those men realized that I am stubborn, and they backed out. It was hard to live single among them and bring up my children. But somebody should stand up and fight. I feel the spadework for the change in the community was made through our series of awareness sessions, public protests and programmes where Islamic scholars from various parts came and discussed the outdated Islamic laws and practices,” she said. “It was at one of such sessions that Justice B. Kemal Pasha courted a controversy for his harsh comments against triple talaq,” she pointed out.
