Saeed Mirza, Feroze Khan, prominent Muslim writers, activists oppose triple talaq, say it's "not God given"

By A Representative
In a strongly-worded statement, 12 prominent citizens based in Mumbai, all of whom happen to Muslim men, have opposed “triple talaq” and “nikaah-halala”, saying they “categorically reject the false claim of the ulema that what goes in the name of Muslim Personal Law in India is a 'God-given' law.”
The signatories include well-known film maker Saeed Mirza, top theatre director Feroze Khan, screen writer Anjum Rajabali, corporate executive Anwar Hussain, communications designer Aamir, activists Mithiborwala, Irfan Engineer and Javed Anand, senior journalist and poet Hasan Kamaal, screen writer and playwright Javed Siddiqi, creative director Kader Qazi, and fiction writer Rahman Abbas.
The signatories say, “Gender equality and justice are human rights issues which must be as much a matter of concern for men as for women. If anything, it is more so men’s obligation to cry a halt to patriarchy, particularly when it is sought to be perpetuated in the name of God.”
Fully supporting “the campaign launched by the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA) for the abolition, and declaration as illegal, of the current practices of triple talaq (instant divorce) and nikaah-halala in India”, the statement says, “We salute BMMA for its initiative in collecting 50,000 signatures from across the country in support of their demand.”
“While the triple talaq method of instant divorce is today banned in more than 21 Muslim majority countries, including Pakistan, it continues to be justified by the ulema in India as legally valid, even though theologically repugnant”, it points out.
Quoting BMMA, the statement says, “There is no mention of the inhuman, unjust and anti-women instant talaq practice in the Quran. In fact, the Quran clearly stipulates an obligatory three-month period during which attempts must be made at reconciliation and mediation before severing of the marital bond.”
“Equally, triple talaq violates the Constitutional principles of gender parity and non-discrimination. Thus this obnoxious practice is both un-Quranic and un-Constitutional”, the statement says, “The ulema who proudly proclaim that Islam is the first religion to have given rights to women are duty bound to ensure justice to women.”
“We bemoan the fact that instead of doing so they continue to justify the Muslim male’s privilege of unilateral and instant divorce, often on a mere whim or fit of anger”, it adds.
As for nikaah-halala, the statement says, “It is a shameful practice which is extremely degrading for women. Even if a husband utters the dread words ‘talaq, talaq, talaq’ in a fit of anger but regrets the same immediately thereafter, according to the ulema there is only one way for the couple to resume their relationship. Another man must marry the divorced woman, consummate the marriage and then divorce her so that she may remarry her former husband.”
“BMMA has even documented some cases where qazis not only justify and legitimise nikaah-halala, but even offer their own “services” as temporary husbands. What could be more disgraceful than this?”, ask the signatories, wondering why are the ulema are “not unwilling and incapable of ending the shameful, anti-women practices of instant divorce and nikaah-halala.”

Comments

From colonial mercantilism to Hindutva: New book on the making of power in Gujarat

By Rajiv Shah Professor Ghanshyam Shah ’s latest book, “ Caste-Class Hegemony and State Power: A Study of Gujarat Politics ”, published by Routledge , is penned by one of Gujarat ’s most respected chroniclers, drawing on decades of fieldwork in the state. It seeks to dissect how caste and class factors overlap to perpetuate the hegemony of upper strata in an ostensibly democratic polity. The book probes the dominance of two main political parties in Gujarat—the Indian National Congress and the BJP—arguing that both have sustained capitalist growth while reinforcing Brahmanic hierarchies.

From protest to proof: Why civil society must rethink environmental resistance

By Shankar Sharma* As concerned environmentalists and informed citizens, many of us share deep unease about the way environmental governance in our country is being managed—or mismanaged. Our complaints range across sectors and regions, and most of them are legitimate. Yet a hard question confronts us: are complaints, by themselves, effective? Experience suggests they are not.

Kolkata event marks 100 years since first Communist conference in India

By Harsh Thakor* A public assembly was held in Kolkata on December 24, 2025, to mark the centenary of the First Communist Conference in India , originally convened in Kanpur from December 26 to 28, 1925. The programme was organised by CPI (ML) New Democracy at Subodh Mallik Square on Lenin Sarani. According to the organisers, around 2,000 people attended the assembly.

Dalit woman student’s death sparks allegations of institutional neglect in Himachal college

By A Representative A Dalit rights organisation has alleged severe caste- and gender-based institutional violence leading to the death of a 19-year-old Dalit woman student at Government Degree College, Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, and has demanded arrests, resignations, and an independent inquiry into the case.

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

Plastic burning in homes threatens food, water and air across Global South: Study

By Jag Jivan In a groundbreaking study spanning 26 countries across the Global South , researchers have uncovered the widespread and concerning practice of households burning plastic waste as a fuel for cooking, heating, and other domestic needs. The research, published in Nature Communications , reveals that this hazardous method of managing both waste and energy poverty is driven by systemic failures in municipal services and the unaffordability of clean alternatives, posing severe risks to human health and the environment.

Economic superpower’s social failure? Inequality, malnutrition and crisis of India's democracy

By Vikas Meshram India may be celebrated as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, but a closer look at who benefits from that growth tells a starkly different story. The recently released World Inequality Report 2026 lays bare a country sharply divided by wealth, privilege and power. According to the report, nearly 65 percent of India’s total wealth is owned by the richest 10 percent of its population, while the bottom half of the country controls barely 6.4 percent. The top one percent—around 14 million people—holds more than 40 percent, the highest concentration since 1961. Meanwhile, the female labour force participation rate is a dismal 15.7 percent.

The architect of Congolese liberation: The life and legacy of Patrice Lumumba

By Harsh Thakor* Patrice Émery Lumumba remains a central figure in the history of African decolonization, serving as the first Prime Minister of the independent Republic of the Congo. Born on July 2, 1925, Lumumba emerged as a radical anti-colonial leader who sought to unify a nation fractured by decades of Belgian rule. His tenure, however, lasted less than seven months before his dismissal and subsequent assassination on January 17, 1961.

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

Search This Blog