India’s top court has banned a controversial Islamic practice that allows men to divorce their wives instantly, ending a long tradition that many Muslim women had fiercely opposed.

The Supreme Court ruled that the practice of “triple talaq”, where Muslim men can divorce their wives by reciting the word talaq (divorce) three times, was both unconstitutional and un-Islamic.

Victims including Shayara Bano, whose husband used triple talaq to divorce her by letter in 2015, had approached India’s highest court to ask for a ruling.

A panel of five judges from India’s major faiths – Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism and Zoroastrianism – said triple talaq was “not integral to religious practice and violates constitutional morality”.

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