Muslim women in India unveil subversive new marriage contract
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After criticizing Muslim clerics in India for treating wives unfairly in disputes with their husbands, one activist is distributing a new marriage contract to redress the balance for women, WomensENews reports.
"Muslim women are some of the worst victims of domestic violence and marital abuse," says Shaista Ambar, attributing that in part to clerics' male-biased interpretation of Islamic law. "Often women are never allowed to tell their side of the story."
In India, communities are guided by religion--rather than secular law--in personal matters such as marriage, divorce and inheritance.
For Muslims, who are 13 percent of the population, influential guidance comes from the All India Muslim Personal Law Board.
In 2005 Ambar was so dissatisfied with the Muslim board for ignoring the problems of women that she founded an alternative, the All India Muslim Women's Personal Law Board.
Since then, she and others have been calling for reforms. The "triple talaq" tradition of divorce--where a man says three times to his wife, "I divorce thee"--is a particular concern.
"Because of widespread illiteracy, women are simply not aware of the rights that Islam has provided them with," says Ambar. "Divorce, for instance, is a long, drawn-out process. Yet the practice of triple 'talaq,' where men can divorce their wives by pronouncing talaq at one go, has ruined the lives of many women who have been left by their husbands, sometimes for the flimsiest of reasons like putting extra salt in the food."
Ambar has worked with over 20 Muslim clerics and scholars around India--all male and from both Sunni and Shiite sects--to draft a new marriage contract.
She's distributing the contract by word of mouth, and by leaving contracts at places where ordinary people can access them, such as grocery stores or tailoring shops.
The Muslim marriage contract is meant to stipulate conjugal rights and obligations as well as the approach to divorce and maintenance.
But often it contains no more than a nuptial sermon and the names and signatures of the couple. The absence of photographs and detailed contact information sometimes make it difficult for women to identify their husbands in court disputes.
Ambar's new contract, by contrast, is detailed and available in both Urdu, the language of many North Indian Muslims, and in Hindi, India's national and most widely spoken language. It is currently being translated into English and other languages spoken in India.
"There is nothing new in this contract," Ambar told Women's eNews. "All we have done is to explain everything in the light of the Quran rather than leave things to be arbitrarily decided by men."
The contract mandates pictures of the couple, their addresses and telephone numbers and contact details for the presiding cleric and witnesses.
It bans dowry customs and marriages between minors--women under 18 and men under 21--and calls for compulsory payment of "meher," or dower to the wife by the husband.
Triple talaq is banned, as is divorce communicated by text messaging, e-mail or phone, or when uttered in an inebriated state or under provocation. Divorces are made more difficult by spreading them over a three-month period. The contract also provides for maintenance payments to the wife.
"Khula," the wife's right to seek divorce from her husband, is allowed under specific grounds. These include the husband being involved with other women, missing for more than four years, being mentally unsound or having HIV/AIDS.
Every clause is accompanied by a quote from the Quran.
The All India Muslim Personal Law Board and its Shia counterpart have dismissed the contract as "useless and a publicity stunt."
Is this new contract a step forward for disenfranchised women in India? Do you think it will be widely used? And at the end of the day, are marriage contracts worth the paper they're written on?
"Muslim women are some of the worst victims of domestic violence and marital abuse," says Shaista Ambar, attributing that in part to clerics' male-biased interpretation of Islamic law. "Often women are never allowed to tell their side of the story."
In India, communities are guided by religion--rather than secular law--in personal matters such as marriage, divorce and inheritance.
For Muslims, who are 13 percent of the population, influential guidance comes from the All India Muslim Personal Law Board.
In 2005 Ambar was so dissatisfied with the Muslim board for ignoring the problems of women that she founded an alternative, the All India Muslim Women's Personal Law Board.
Since then, she and others have been calling for reforms. The "triple talaq" tradition of divorce--where a man says three times to his wife, "I divorce thee"--is a particular concern.
"Because of widespread illiteracy, women are simply not aware of the rights that Islam has provided them with," says Ambar. "Divorce, for instance, is a long, drawn-out process. Yet the practice of triple 'talaq,' where men can divorce their wives by pronouncing talaq at one go, has ruined the lives of many women who have been left by their husbands, sometimes for the flimsiest of reasons like putting extra salt in the food."
Ambar has worked with over 20 Muslim clerics and scholars around India--all male and from both Sunni and Shiite sects--to draft a new marriage contract.
She's distributing the contract by word of mouth, and by leaving contracts at places where ordinary people can access them, such as grocery stores or tailoring shops.
The Muslim marriage contract is meant to stipulate conjugal rights and obligations as well as the approach to divorce and maintenance.
But often it contains no more than a nuptial sermon and the names and signatures of the couple. The absence of photographs and detailed contact information sometimes make it difficult for women to identify their husbands in court disputes.
Ambar's new contract, by contrast, is detailed and available in both Urdu, the language of many North Indian Muslims, and in Hindi, India's national and most widely spoken language. It is currently being translated into English and other languages spoken in India.
"There is nothing new in this contract," Ambar told Women's eNews. "All we have done is to explain everything in the light of the Quran rather than leave things to be arbitrarily decided by men."
The contract mandates pictures of the couple, their addresses and telephone numbers and contact details for the presiding cleric and witnesses.
It bans dowry customs and marriages between minors--women under 18 and men under 21--and calls for compulsory payment of "meher," or dower to the wife by the husband.
Triple talaq is banned, as is divorce communicated by text messaging, e-mail or phone, or when uttered in an inebriated state or under provocation. Divorces are made more difficult by spreading them over a three-month period. The contract also provides for maintenance payments to the wife.
"Khula," the wife's right to seek divorce from her husband, is allowed under specific grounds. These include the husband being involved with other women, missing for more than four years, being mentally unsound or having HIV/AIDS.
Every clause is accompanied by a quote from the Quran.
The All India Muslim Personal Law Board and its Shia counterpart have dismissed the contract as "useless and a publicity stunt."
Is this new contract a step forward for disenfranchised women in India? Do you think it will be widely used? And at the end of the day, are marriage contracts worth the paper they're written on?
