This refers to the article, “Dissecting the triple talaq judgement” (September 7) by Raghav Pandey. We must not mix the basic tenets of a religion like going to a temple/mosque or wearing a cross to discriminatory practices in the name of religion like the sati system or triple talaq, wearing a burqa or casteist sacred thread. We know that discriminatory practices like the sati had been defended by the logic that Hindu women did it ‘voluntarily’. Now, it is argued that innumerable women in the Muslim community still believe in polygamy and in the system of triple talaq. Therefore, those practices must not be dismantled for the sake of some women who are fighting against those age-old religious beliefs.
We got Raja Ram Mohan Roy to stop women from ‘voluntarily and respectfully’ killing themselves in the name of sati; Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar to stop ‘honouring’ widows by allowing their remarriage and Kemal Atatürk to deny Muslim women their ‘right’ to wear burqa. Indeed, burqa has become a liability for Muslim women in India’s tropical weather as girls are coming out more and more to get higher education and job. Yet religious pressure makes many women in the Muslim community accept this liability. On the other hand, religious practice of wearing a sacred thread by Brahmin Hindu community gives the Scheduled Castes a non-sacred identity.