A young mother in India has told how her husband divorced her by text after she confessed to being gang raped by neighbours.

She revealed how her Dubai-based construction worker spouse reacted badly when she confided in him what had happened.

The unnamed woman, 25, said she received a message soon after which said ‘talaq’ three times.

Under Sharia Law a man can divorce his wife instantly if he says ‘talaq’ to her three times.

'Violated': The 25-year-old mother-of-one (left) from Meerut, India, was divorced by her husband via text after she told him she had been gang raped

Child: The woman described how her husband and his mother threw her out of her family home and took custody of her son, four (pictured)

Soon afterwards the woman, who cannot be named, was thrown out of the house where she lived with her mother-in-law, 70, who took custody of her four-year-old son.

Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, the mother-of-one bravely told how she ‘went numb’ when she received the message ending their five-year marriage, having previously thought her husband and his mother had been sympathetic.

Blasting her ‘cowardly’ husband, she said: ‘When I read the message I went numb. I couldn’t believe what I had read. Just three words; talaq, talaq, talaq.’

She went on: ‘This is the last thing I was expecting from my husband of five years after I confided in him about what happened.

‘I felt violated. I thought that he would stand by my side through this, to help me through the pain of it.

‘But I was wrong. He took the easiest way out like a coward and divorced me with text message.

‘It took him five seconds to end a five-year relationship. And my mother-in-law who had stood by my side after I was raped and went with me to the police station to report the attack, suddenly changed her mind and took her son’s side.

‘Overnight I became an outcast from my whole family.

‘I could have survived even that, but then they snatched away my last hope – my only child. I have completely lost the desire to live.’

The unnamed woman has since moved back to her parents’ home in Meerut, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, north of New Delhi.

Her estranged husband’s mother and his family approve of the divorce.

Estranged: In support, the woman's mother-in-law accompanied her to the police station to report the rape, but then backed her son's decision to request a divorce and evicted the victim from the house they shared

‘My son has divorced his wife, so she has no right to live with us. That’s the law,’ the mother-in-law told MailOnline.

‘She no longer belongs to us, but the child is part of our family’s lineage. We can’t let him go with her.’

WHAT IS 'TRIPLE TALAQ'? Under Sharia Law a husband can divorce his wife instantly by announcing the word 'talaq' three times. In Islam, the man is allowed to say the word three times - but can still take her back after saying it twice. But after the third time the divorce is final and the couple can’t get back together. Some men choose to divorce their wives three times in one go – known as the ‘triple talaq’. The Koran says there should be a cooling off period of three months between each pronouncement of talaq. The couple are supposed to attempt to reconcile between each pronouncement, with the help of mediators from both families. If the couple have sex during the reconciliation period, they are deemed to be reconciled and the divorce is void. A husband can invoke talaq for any reason no matter how trivial. Advertisement

The number of Muslim men in India invoking ‘triple talaq’ rule under Islamic law is increasing.

They are taking to new media platforms such as Skype, email and WhatsApp, which concerns women’s rights groups in the country.

‘Men are misusing technology to make women more vulnerable in society,’ said Zakia Soman, co-founder of the Indian Muslim Women’s Movement (BMMA).

‘Even some Muslim nations have abolished ‘triple talaq’, but our religious leaders who approve of this un-Islamic means of divorce follow a mindset that doesn’t view women as equals.

Ms Soman called triple talaq ‘misogynous’ and added practices such as polygamy, denial of alimony and inheritance rights to women have become ingrained in Muslim society in India through misinterpretation of the Koran.

A spokeswoman for the Kerala Women’s Commission, J Prameela Devi, told MailOnline: ‘It’s unacceptable to just text someone and demand a divorce. ‘You have to treat a human being with the dignity and decency they deserve.’

In October, India’s Supreme Court announced it would review Islamic personal law – or Sharia Law – to possibly end discrimination against Muslim women.

A number of Muslim scholars have called the draconian triple talaq ‘unjust’.

In July a government report recommended the practice should be outlawed in India.

The committee said it makes wives ‘extremely vulnerable’ and ‘insecure’ of their marital status.

But the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) defends the practice, which is banned in neighbouring Islamic countries, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Archaic religious practices such as instant divorce continue in India as the country fails to recognise a uniform civil code applying to all Indians.

Instead, each religious community has its own laws governing marriage and divorce, leaving 14million Muslims free to follow Sharia law.