(This story originally appeared in on Sep 6, 2017)

The Supreme Court has declared the instant triple talaq arbitrary and unconstitutional but looks like it will be another battle to get the society to shun the practice that has existed for decades now. A 23-year-old woman from Juhapura who got back with her husband hours after he pronounced instant triple talaq faces social boycott as she is being seen by her neighbours as a promiscuous woman living in with a stranger.The couple have a six-year-old son. On August 30, just eight days after the SC verdict, the woman’s husband announced instant triple talaq in a fit of rage after she failed to get him a matchbox. But the next morning, realising his mistake, the husband apologised to her. In an ideal situation, this should have been a happily-ever-after, but it was not to be. Narrating how things unfolded, Munim (name changed), said, “Last Wednesday, I was sound asleep when Hozefa (name changed) came home. It was 1 am. He looked inebriated.He wanted to smoke and asked me to hand over a matchbox to him. But I was too sleepy to wake up and told him where to find it. When he did not manage to locate the matchbox, he began hitting me. Then he pronounced talaq thrice.” Munim said, “I was so shocked to hear talaq from him that I told him he could have killed me than utter those words.” But what happened next was even worse.The neighbours, who woke up hearing the commotion, banded together and decided that since Munim had been divorced and was no longer related to the man she called husband, she should move back into her parents’ house. “They removed my bangles and my nose ring. Then they asked me to sit in ‘iddat’ but I refused,” said Munim. Iddat is the customary mourning period where women who are divorced are kept in isolation for a certain period of time. When Noorjahan Dewan , a women’s rights activist, heard about what had transpired, she went to the couples’ house and informed Munim that the practice had been effectively suspended by the SC and that her husband could not divorce her like that.However, the fight Munim has to take up now is not against her husband or his family since Hozefa, who regretted his decision, asked her forgive him and return to him. Even Hozefa’s mother chided him for his callousness. For Munim, the real fight is with her neighbours who now consider her a fallen woman living with a stranger because according to them instant triple talaq is still valid. “They do not talk to me; they do not even look at me now. I try not to be bothered by it but of course it hurts. The people who were friends till yesterday now refuse to even acknowledge my existence,” she rued.Munim has agreed to live with her husband and has forgiven him for what he did in a moment of rage. But the couple fear the stigma may continue to haunt their child in the years to come. Noorjahan Dewan said, “Even though the couple have resolved their differences, what is most striking is the attitude of the people around who are behaving in such a despicable way.” Hozefa remained unavailable for his comment.