Cover story Box :
1)
‘Dalit
movement has ignored gender issues’
2)
We too have made history’
3) Window
of opportunity
Breeze from Bangladesh
While Muslim orthodoxy continues to stonewall any attempt at reform,
neighbouring Bangladesh contemplates sweeping changes in family laws
BY SWAPNA MAJUMDAR
Divorce may no longer be such a traumatic experience
for women in Bangladesh. If the country adopts
the Uniform Family code (UFC), women will have
a greater say in marriage, divorce, maintenance, inheritance and child
custody. The proposed uniform family code seeks to reform existing family
laws to make them more humane and beneficial to women. By reforming laws
to end discrimination against women in these matters, the UFC seeks to
give equal rights to women belonging to all religions.
The UFC, which is presently under consideration by the
government, is the brainchild of the Bangladesh Mahila Parishad (BMP).
The BMP has been working for women’s rights over the last 30 years. “We
realised that women are subject to oppression and discrimination in matters
relating to personal rights. They are also denied access to opportunities
for development, despite the Constitution guaranteeing equality to men
and women,” explains Ayesha Khanam, general secretary, BMP.
Since they provided legal aid, BMP members were conversant
with all laws, particularly those relating to women. According to Khanam,
although 85 per cent of the population in the country is Muslim, the demand
for a uniform family code cuts across all religions. “Although laws for
women do exist, like the Cruelty to Women Ordinance, Dowry Prohibition
Act, and the Family Court Ordinance, structural weaknesses limit their
efficacy,” contends Khanam. It is these limitations that the UFC hopes
to redress.
In the first part, which deals with marriage and divorce,
the UFC makes it mandatory for every marriage and divorce to be registered.
It also lays down the minimum age of marriage for boys at 22 years and
for girls at 18. “Many girls are married as soon as they reach puberty,
sometimes even earlier. These are rarely, if at all, registered. So the
girls are deprived of their rights if they are abandoned or divorced by
their husbands. If marriages and divorces are registered, it will give
women legal grounds to get what is rightfully theirs,” points out barrister–at–law
Tania Amir.
In a bid towards gender equality, the UFC gives women
equal rights to property acquired during the course of the marriage. The
UFC also outlines grounds for divorce for both men and women. While there
are eight grounds on which men can claim divorce, women have 10.
Besides the usual reasons like immorality, impotency,
and physical and mental torture for which women can claim divorce, the
UFC also puts down dowry demands as a valid ground. Inability to pay maintenance
for two years or disappearing for the same period also gives women reason
to demand divorce. In fact, even if the husband is addicted to drugs of
any sort, divorce claims are valid. A husband can also ask for a divorce
in the event of his wife being a drug addict.
However, although the UFC gives husbands the right to
seek divorce if the wife is a lesbian, it does not give women the same
right if their husbands are gay. Says Khanam, “This aspect could be looked
into later. We first want men and women to understand that a woman cannot
be divorced merely on the whims of her husband. The reasons have to be
in accordance with the laws. Women are often taken for a ride because of
their ignorance.”
In the second part, the UFC provides for maintenance
to become compulsory and uniform, thus transcending religious customs and
traditional laws. While laying down the grounds for maintenance, it also
outlines the course of action that can be taken if the maintenance amount
is not paid.
“The number of abandoned women is on the rise,” contends
Farida Arif, executive director of the SERWTCI Trust, a quasi-governmental
body that looks after the socio–economic development of distressed women.
“Organisations like ours try to make women economically
independent. But if maintenance becomes their right by law, their aspirations
for self–sufficiency will become greater and reduce their dependency on
others,” says Arif.
The third part of the UFC deals with the appointment
of guardians of minors and lays out eligibility conditions for guardians
and their duties and rights. It also provides for regulating the conduct
of guardians if they act against the welfare of the minor or the property
they have been nominated to protect.
The uniform law of adoption forms the fourth part of the
UFC. It simplifies adoption procedures for married couples. But it has
still not made a provision allowing single women or men to adopt children
if they so desire.
The most important aspect of the UFC is the uniform law
of inheritance. Property rights are often the most contentious. This law
lays down that women, whether married or unmarried, shall have equal rights
to property. In fact, it also makes provisions for children born out of
wedlock — it gives them the right to their maternal property.
“Property rights are one of the most important tools for
empowering women. This helps them control their resources and become independent,”
avers Aroma Dutta, chief of the PRIP Trust, a Dhaka–based non–governmental
organisation (NGO) working towards women’s empowerment.
New dreams and aspirations are stirring within Bangladeshi
women. Education is helping more women realise that they are entitled to
certain rights under the Constitution. But since structural contradictions
of laws still exist, reforms are imperative to make these dreams come true.
Women’s organisations pushing for the UFC have received
considerable political support, not just from the coalition parties in
power but also from the Opposition led by former premier Begum Zia. Since
a woman Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, is in the saddle at present, hopes
are high that the Uniform Family Code will be adopted soon.
(Women’s Feature Service).
BOX
Indian Muslims and the bumble-bee
— JAVED ANAND
According to all known laws of aerodynamics (science of
flying), the body shape of a bumble–bee is such that it is impossible for
the poor thing to fly. But the bumble–bee does not know this and continues
to fly anyway.
According to the teachings of Islam, marriage is a social
contract between two consenting adults for which no moulvi or kaazi
is essential. All that is needed are two Muslims respected by the local
community, willing to be witnesses to the contract between a man
and a woman to marry each other on mutually agreed terms. But because the
poor Muslim does not know this (or chooses to be ignorant), he continues
to be a slave of the moulvi saheb anyway.
Why blame the poor moulvi saheb alone? The moment
he puts his signature on the nikaahnama (wedding document), his
role is over. This is because while a Muslim male marries in an ‘Islamic’
way he divorces in a totally ‘secular’ fashion. A post-card, a telegram,
now an e–mail, is all that he needs to snap the marital bond without a
moment’s notice either to his wife or to any moulvi saheb.
And once the post-card, telegram or e–mail has been served
on the hapless wife, even a well–intentioned moulvi saheb is totally
helpless because of his belief that though socially abhorrent, the triple
talaaq practice is theologically unobjectionable. Even if he were to subsequently
intervene and convince the errant male to rethink, its too late. The only
way out for the summarily divorced wife is to find another man who will
marry her, consummate the marriage and give her an instant talaaq. Only
then can she remarry her first husband.
Make no mistake. The moulvi sahebs and the kazis
who adorn the All–India Muslim Personal Law Board are no hermits who need
a ‘dialogue’ with this or that group of Muslim women to become aware of
the plight of Muslim women. If indeed they are concerned with Islam getting
a bad name, they should ask themselves why they so obstinately continue
to resist change. One has only to go through the preceding two articles
to realise how far the Muslim woman in India is behind her sister even
from ‘backward’ Bangladesh.
Be it Bangladesh, Pakistan, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, or
any other Muslim society, one thing is obvious. In each of these countries,
the impetus for pro–women reforms has come from other societal or state
institutions, while the bulk of the clergy remains opposed to change. How
can it be otherwise in case of India?
As in all other organised religions, the Muslim clergy,
too, is entirely male-dominated. And its but natural that a male-centred
body — be it a ‘Men Only’ club or a religious body — will be male–oriented
in thought and in deed.
No one can deny that when Islam was born, the teachings
of the Quran and the sayings of the Prophet were radically pro-women, far
in advance of the then prevailing social ethos. But we are not talking
here of Islam or its Prophet. We are talking instead of the male–dominated
Muslim clergy that through the centuries has subverted the egalitarian
thrust of the Quran in the matter of man–woman relations. The MPLB is part
of that subversive tradition.
It is not to be denied that some men of religion, who
occupy important positions in the MPLB hierarchy, are genuinely concerned
about the pathetic plight of Muslim women in India. But to expect such
a body to be an agent for change is to ask for a miracle. To believe that
the same clergy that has been the bulwark of patriarchy, orthodoxy, conservatism
and worse, elsewheres in the world will through some magical process in
India be the harbinger of change. |
Cover story Box :
1)
‘Dalit
movement has ignored gender issues’
2)
We too have made history’
3) Window
of opportunity |