NEW DELHI: On a landmark day for gender justice, Shayara Bano, the woman who filed the writ petition in Supreme Court in after her husband served her instant Triple Talaq in 2016, said the passage of the Bill by Parliament will empower Muslim women and galvanise them to take action against the practice.

“The Supreme Court verdict was a big victory for the larger cause but still cases were happening. Now that the law will be in place it will surely instil fear in husbands,” she said. Bano, who faced the brunt of the practice after 15 years of marriage, questioned those who feel making the offence punishable with three years imprisonment would leave the woman a destitute. She asked, “What security does a woman have when she is thrown out of the house after instant Triple Talaq?”

Soon after the passage of the bill, Zakia Soman from Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan reacted by calling it a “historic development”. BMMA was one of the petitioners in the Supreme Court in the triple talaq case and has supported the government’s decision all through to make the pronouncement of instant talaq a cognizable offence punishable with three years punishment.

“For all these years one of the gaps in our democracy has been the legal discrimination of Muslim women under personal law. Today, this bill has opened new ground. I am not saying justice will happen from tomorrow. A lot of awareness and reform from within the community will have to take place but now the women have the law to support their voice,” Soman said. She reinforced BMMA’s long-standing demand for larger reform in Muslim family law by way of codification.

Soman explained that the jail term is a much-needed deterrent but highlighted that there was a need to firm up the justice delivery system as on-ground implementation has been a prime challenge. She shared that since the ordinance came into force last year and was re-promulgated earlier this year, BMMA is yet to see one case where the husband who was arrested for pronouncing instant triple talaq being sentenced with any period of imprisonment.

Opposing the provisions of the soon to be enacted law, Bebaak Collective, another rights group that was also one of the petitioners in the triple talaq case stated to condemn the passage of the bill. “First time, a personal law would have a penal provision, it seems. Three years of imprisonment of the husband not only would leave the aggrieved complainant at the mercy of their matrimonial family who is most probable to turn hostile and vengeful towards the wife for putting him behind the bars, but also the financial and social liberty of the woman would be compromised!” the statement reads.

