In a surprising change of stand over the Triple Talaq issue following PM Modi's speeches in Mahoba and Varanasi on this issue, Muslim women of Agra held a protest march against the union government's interference in the Islamic laws and sent a memorandum addressed to the President of India, demanding that the Modi government should be prevented from meddling with the ancient laws of Muslims.

A large procession of Muslim men and women marched towards the Agra Collectorate from the Muslim-dominated Mantola area and met the District Magistrate who was presented with the memorandum addressed to the President of India.

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Talking to India Today after the protest march ended, Raziya Begum asked PM Modi to first look inside his home where his own legally wedded wife was living a life of separation. If there had been any injustice in the 1400 years old Islamic law, then the billions of Muslims would not have been living such happy and prosperous lives all over the world.

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WILL ONLY OBEY THE LAW OF QURAN

Sagir Fatima Girls Inter College Principal Dr Farhat Bano said that the Central government had no business interfering with the religious laws of Muslims as the Muslims will only obey the law written down in the Holy Quran and no other law of law could be applicable on them despite what the government may say.

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Sultana Qureshi said that India was under Muslim rule for 1,300 years and under British rule for 250 years but no government ever interfered with the Islamic laws and in under 36 months of rule, Modi has started a debate over the validity of Islamic laws, which was intolerable.

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She said that it seems that Modi is being influenced by the impending elections in five states including UP, in order to gather as many Hindu votes in his favour as possible. She said that the Muslim women will oppose this interference at all costs and will not allow the Islamic laws to be abrogated in the name of common civil code.



POLITICS OVER TRIPLE TALAQ

Citing the example of the Shahbano case, she said that the Supreme Court had given a decision in favour of Shahbano at that time, but the Muslims had protested vehemently against this decision. Consequently, the central government at that time had to bring a law overturning the Supreme Court's decision and assured Muslims that the Islamic laws will not be changed by the Court. But PM Modi is trying to do exactly that by challenging the Triple Talaq, merely to feed his electoral politics.

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It was probably the first time in the history of Agra, when so many Burqa-clad women descended on the city's streets to protest against the central government. Even foreign tourists watched the spectacle in amazement and snapped pictures of the procession in their cameras.

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WOMEN PRESSURISED

However, several local BJP leaders commented that it was clear that the women were being pressurised by Muslim men and a lot of Muslim men accompanied the march that was organized by the Rashtriya Sarvdaliy Muslim Action Committee and UP Muslim Mahapanchayat, while none of the Muslim women organizations were a part of this march.

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Haji Jameeluddin, Nadeem Noor, Imran Bakhshi, Haji Mohd. Yunus, S M Kazmi, Syed Irfan Salim, Shareef Kale, Ziyauddin, Sami Aghai, Mohd. Akbar Qureshi and several other prominent Muslim leaders accompanied the protest march.

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Senior Samajwadi Party leader Mohd. Akbar Qureshi told India Today that Modi was an enemy of Muslims and his slogan 'sabka sath sabka vikas' was a farce. In fact, Modi sought to destroy the culture and religion of Muslims and this attempt to change the Islamic law was a direct attack on Muslims which will not be tolerated.

Also read: Centre opposes triple talaq in Supreme Court, says gender equality not negotiable

