New Delhi: Union Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Friday (July 31) said that “1st August is a day which made Muslim women free from social evil of Triple Talaq while addressing Muslim women from across the country through virtual conference along with Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani on the occasion of “Muslim Women Rights Day”.
According to Naqvi, "1st August has been recorded in the country’s history as “Muslim Women Rights Day”, and it will remain as "a golden moment of Indian democracy and Parliamentary history”.
He further said that commitment of the government is “Politic Empowerment and not Political Exploitation”, adding several “bold and big reforms” are a reflection of our honest and effective efforts that have delivered better results.
The Minority Affairs Minister said that the law which makes the social evil of Triple Talaq a criminal offence has strengthened “self-reliance, self-respect and self-confidence” of the Muslim women of the country. He said the government has ensured gender equality and strengthened constitutional, fundamental and democratic rights of the Muslim women by bringing law against the cruel social evil of Triple Talaq.
He further said that Triple Talaq or Talaq-a-Biddat was neither Islamic nor legal. Despite the fact, the social evil of Triple Talaq was given “political patronage” by “Merchants of Votes”.
Naqvi said the law against the social evil of Triple Talaq could have been passed in 1986 when the Supreme Court had given historic judgment in the Shahbano case.
“The Congress had an absolute majority in Parliament with more than 400 out of 545 Lok Sabha Members and more than 159 out of 245 Members in the Rajya Sabha. But the then Rajiv Gandhi government used its strength in the Parliament to make the Supreme Court judgment ineffective and deprive the Muslim women of their constitutional and fundamental rights”, he pointed out.
"Several Muslim-majority nations of the world had declared Triple Talaq as illegal and un-Islamic much earlier. Egypt was the first Muslim nation that abolished this social evil in 1929. Sudan in 1929, Pakistan in 1956, Bangladesh in 1972, Iraq in 1959, Syria in 1953, Malaysia in 1969 had abolished the practice of Triple Talaq," he said, adding "Besides, countries such as Cyprus, Jordan, Algeria, Iran, Brunei, Morocco, Qatar, UAE also ended this social evil many years ago. But Muslim women in India struggled for decades to get freedom from this cruel social evil."
Union Law and Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Smriti Irani also addressed the virtual conference. Manjit Singh Rai, Vice-Chairperson, National Commission for Minorities was also remained present at the event.
About 50,000 Muslim women from various places across the country including Uttam Nagar and Batla House in New Delhi; Greater Noida, Lucknow and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh; Jaipur in Rajasthan; Mumbai in Maharashtra, Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, Krishnagiri in Tamil Nadu; Hyderabad etc joined the virtual conference.
