The All-India Shia Muslim Personal Law Board declared on Thursday that it would intervene in the Saira Banu case in the Supreme Court on the issue of triple talaq.

The All-India Shia Muslim Personal Law Board declared on Thursday that it would intervene in the Saira Banu case in the Supreme Court on the issue of triple talaq.

The executive council meeting of the board, held on Thursday, also asked the government to ban triple talaq just as it had banned the Sati practice decades ago.

Briefing reporters during the executive meeting, Maulana Yasoob Abbas, spokesperson of the board, said that the triple talaq tradition was detrimental to the interests of women. The Shia board has always shunned the practice of triple talaq.

“Why should the woman always bear the brunt of divorce It is not only the woman but her family and her children that face the trauma. Islam treats men and women as equals then why this discrimination ” Maulana Abbas asked.

He said that with the advent of new technology, women were being given divorce through the Internet and SMS by their husbands who work in other countries.

“Even when the government suspends or dismisses a peon, he is given a chance to explain his position, but when man divorces a woman, she is not even given an opportunity to explain her point of view,” he said.

The maulana said the Shia delegation would not meet Rahul Gandhi because, according to him, the Congress had done nothing on the issue.

Replying to a question, the maulana said that he had met Maulana Kalbe Sadiq who is also the vice-president of the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) and had given him the model nikahnama drafted by the Shia board.

He said he would place it before the AIMPLB and it was up to them to take necessary decision on the matter.

In another resolution passed by the executive council, the Shia board strongly condemned terrorist activities in the country and said that such actions should be firmly dealt with. The board has asked the Centre to take the strictest possible action in the Uri attack in Kashmir.

The board, in another resolution, asked political parties to give greater representation to the Shia community in the upcoming elections in five states, including Uttar Pradesh.

Significantly, the Shia community does not permit triple talaq, but the Sunni community does. Asked whether by raising the issue, the Shia community wanted to put the Sunnis in the dock, the maulana said, ”The issue relates to women and we do not want to embarrass our Sunni brothers. We have given them a copy of the model nikahnama and want them to put an end to unfair practices. There is no question of one-upmanship,” he said.