india

Updated: May 30, 2016 00:14 IST

Lending weight to the RSS’ demand for a uniform civil code, the women’s wing of Rashtriya Muslim Manch (MRM), an affiliate of the Sangh Parivar, has started a campaign to register all marriages and divorce cases to stop the practice of ‘triple talaq’, whereby men end marriages by merely uttering the word divorce thrice.

A senior functionary of MRM told HT talks with religious and socio-cultural bodies are under way and a meeting in June will churn out details to stop this.

“Just as registration of births and deaths is mandatory, marriages and divorces should also be compulsorily registered. Our religion does not allow a man to end a marriage by merely repeating talaq thrice. There is a provision for counseling,” said Shehnaz Afzal, head of the women’s wing of MRM.

A uniform civil code has been on the RSS’ agenda for long and has also been consistently raised by its protégé — the BJP in its election manifesto over the years.

Referring to the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937, which allows triple talaq, Afzal said many women have been victims of the practice with no efforts made to counsel the couple.“There can be no nikah without the presence of a lawyer and two witnesses, how is it then that a marriage can end with no such obligation? In the name of religion, women are being discriminated,” she said.

Afzal said she came across a number of young girls who have seen their mothers suffer the consequences of triple talaq and have grown apprehensive of the institution of marriage. “There are families where children have slipped into depression,” she said, underling the need for legal and social intervention.

In December last year, at a convention in Ajmer, the wing had passed a resolution against triple talaq and decided to push for a uniform civil code. A demand was also made for rehabilitation of Muslim men falsely implicated in terror activities.