The issue of triple talaq is trapped in the gender binary that divides conservative Muslim society across western Uttar Pradesh, with many women giving the Government a thumb’s up for its efforts to criminalise the practice but shying away from voting for the BJP because of loyalty to their husbands.
The she-says-maybe-he-says-nay syndrome may hinder the BJP from winning Muslim votes in the western Uttar Pradesh belt that goes to the polls in the first phase on April 11 as most men in the community say they don’t want the Government to interfere in their religion.
Kaisar Jahan, a homemaker in Muzaffarnagar, typifies the dilemma of a woman caught between self-assertion and tradition that dictates she bows down to her husband.
“Triple talaq is an atrocity which should definitely be criminalised. I like BJP for thinking about us,” said the mother of a six-year-old boy. She quickly added that she will not vote for the BJP as her husband does not want it to win.
“I will vote where my husband wants me to. He does not want BJP, so I will not vote for it,” Kaisar told PTI while standing outside a shop. “Don’t interfere in our religion. Keep politics out of it,” snapped her husband Aslam who came and took her away.
The pattern was visible in Kairana, Muzaffarnagar, Meerut and Baghpat, which votes in phase one along with Saharanpur, Bijnor, Ghaziabad and Gautam Budh Nagar.
Rabia, 35, resident of Kairana, said, “Triple talaq is a wrong practice but we are not for the BJP. We will vote for anyone fielded by Akhilesh ji (SP chief Akhilesh Yadav) as my husband says.”
About 35 per cent of the more than 1.5 crore voting in round one are Muslims, said JPS Rathore, vice president of the Uttar Pradesh unit of the BJP.
Most Muslim women in the region hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for bringing triple talaq under the spotlight, saying it was a step towards empowering Muslim women. Triple talaq, also known as ‘talaq-e-biddat’, is the practice of instant divorce in which a Muslim man can legally divorce his wife by pronouncing ‘talaq’ three times in one go.
“My husband divorced me and married another woman. I had no choice but to accept the decision. I live with my four-year-old son now. Triple talaq is a heinous practice. Don’t we Muslim women have rights?” asked Farzana, a resident of Muzaffarnagar.
“My husband divorced me within two years of our marriage. I was just 18. We do not have any rights. I am illiterate may be that’s why I could not fight. Luckily I did not have a child to look after. Triple talaq is a crime and men should not be allowed to do it,” said an anguished Saba.