All a Muslim husband has to say is “Talaq,” and he has divorced his wife. This is just one element of an institutionalized system of oppression of women that is analogous to the way dhimmis are treated under the Sharia.
From the Straits Times, with thanks to Teri:
NEW DELHI – Rehana does not answer her cellphone when her husband calls.
She has been married for 20 years and has four grown-up children, the BBC reported. But her husband Akram threw her out of their house in January and remarried a month later.
Rehana, whom the BBC identified by only one name, now lives in constant fear. ‘He might say ‘talaq’ on the phone to me,’ she said. ‘I don’t answer my phone when I see his number. I don’t want a divorce.’
Muslim women’s rights activists in India have been demanding a ban on what is known as ‘triple talaq’ or instant divorce for over a decade, the BBC said. It is a system wherein a Muslim man can divorce his wife in a matter of minutes by saying the word ‘talaq’ (divorce) three times.
The issue was highlighted recently when several Indian Muslims took to divorcing their wives by mail, over the phone and even through mobile phone text messages.
The practice of instant divorce is banned in several Muslim countries, where talaq can be a first notification of divorce, but the man’s intention must be repeated before the court.
But it continues in India.
Islamic scholars say the Quran spells out how to issue a divorce. It has to be spread over three months, allowing a couple time for reconciliation.
‘There’s nothing in the Quran that allows triple, verbal, instantaneous talaq. There’s no greater anathema than the kind of talaq that has now become the greatest black mark against gender in Islam,’ activist Sayeeda Hamid told the BBC.
There were attempts in the past to focus on the ills of instant divorce.
And the clamour to ban the practice has forced the All India Muslim Personal Law Board to take up the matter.
Spokesman Syed Qasim Rasool Ilyas told the BBC the board does not have the authority to ban the practice. ‘But there’s a consensus among the board that it’s a sin and we’ll try to discourage it,’ he said.
A sin? How can it be, when it is sanctioned by Islamic law?