The BJP is planning big celebrations on Friday to mark the first anniversary of the passage of the Muslim Women’s Right Protection Bill, which abolished triple talaq and made it a criminal offence, something that drew protests from a section of Muslim community, mostly men who thought part of its provisions  being harsh to husband.

The BJP has maintained that there has been a sharp and dramatic fall in the cases of   instant talaq in the Muslim community in last one year.

The Modi-Government passed the bill on July 31 2019 and the next day, it received the President’s assent. The annulment of ‘teen talaq’ is being celebrated as Muslim Women’s Right Day or the ‘Muslim Mahila Adhikar Divas.’

As part of the programme Union Ministers, Smriti Irani, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Mukthar Abbas Naqvi would connect and speak with women across the country from the party headquarters through video conferencing.

The regressive Triple talaq has been abolished for long in most of the Islamic countries but persisted in India on account of vote bank politics. Congress Government in 1986 diluted divorce law by passing an Act against the Supreme Court ruling which had favoured aggrieved Muslim woman’s right to receive maintenance from her husband in the famous Shah Bano case.

Then, the then Rajiv Gandhi Government enacted a  controversial law with its most controversial aspect being the right to maintenance for the period of ‘iddat’ after the divorce, and shifting the onus of maintaining her to her relatives or the Waqf Board.

BJP seeks to draw the support of Muslim women who had suffered under the oppressive provisions of the outdated Islamic law. A number of Muslim women had petitioned in the Supreme Court which declared instant talaq as unlawful. The legislation passed by the BJP Government had made it a criminal offence.

BJP units will be  organising meetings at all levels including  the ‘mandal’ and district ‘  through video conference.

These meetings by the BJP leaders  would seek  Muslim women to speak abut their experiences pre and post the passage of the law. The Mahila morchas of the party will appeal to women to come forth and reject this practice openly, which is now a law that is binding.

Cases of instant talaq are still reported from across the  country from economically deprived sections of Muslim women on account of lack of awareness, support from the community as also because of  economic dependence.