Besides Gender Equality, Islam also Preaches Gender Justice
Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) was the first who talked about women’s rights at the time when they were a suppressed lot, thousands of women who gathered at Mumbai’s iconic Azad Maidan on 31 March to protest against Triple Talaq Bill were told.
“There are lengthy debates over ‘gender equality’. But, besides gender equality, Islam also preaches “gender justice”. Women were treated like animals all across the world. It was in such a situation Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) stood against the tyrants and preached for women’s rights”, Arshiya Shakeel, Secretary Jamaat-e-Islami Women’s Wing Nalasopara said while addressing the women who came from different parts of Mumbai to protest against Triple Talaq Bill.
Warning the Modi government against interfering in the Islamic Shari’ah and urging the NDA government to roll back the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill – euphemistically known as Triple Talaq Bill, she said, “No other religion has given the rights to women like Islam. Along with their rights, Islam has also given them respect and honour – something the world was devoid of before Islam.
“We Muslim women are fully satisfied and happy with the rights of women as defined under the Islamic Shari’ah,” she said.
She also said that the number of abandoned women is increasing in the country day by day. Any move to interfere in the Islamic divorce law will increase this number even further.
The Muslim Women Protection of Rights on Marriage Bill which criminalises instant triple talaq or concurrent talaq with 3-year jail term has been passed by the Lok Sabha. It has however been stalled in the Rayja Sabha, the upper house of Indian Parliament, where the opposition members are demanding amendment in the proposed bill.
Sumayya Khalilur Rahman Sajjad Nomani, while addressing the Muslim women’s protest rally, also said that Muslim women are happy and totally safe under the Islamic Law and the government should leave their religious matters to them. “We can tolerate everything, but not interference in the Islamic Shari’ah,” she said adding that the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill is also against the Constitution of India.
All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) spokesperson (women’s wing) Dr. Asma Zahra, while addressing the Azad Maidan protest rally, urged the government to take back the triple talaq bill, which is aimed at “pushing Muslim husbands to jail”.
The Muslim Women’s Protest Rally was supported by all Muslim sects. As the Muslim women gathered at Azad Maidan, AIMPLB spokesperson Khalilur Rahman Sajjad Nomani, Samajwadi Party Chief Abu Asim Azmi, Ejaz Abdul Quddus Kashmiri, Farid Shaikh, Suhail Lokhandwala, Zahir Kazi and other prominent Muslim community leaders were seen monitoring the arrangement and coordinating with the volunteers.
Similar protest rallies were earlier also organised in Malegaon, Jaipur, Lucknow, Pune, Nagpur, Prabhani, Nanded, Jalgaon, Dhule and other parts of the country. The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) has also announced a rally in Delhi on April 4.
Besides triple talaq bill, Muslim women are also upset with President Ramnath Kovind over his address to the Joint Session of the Parliament wherein he had said, “For decades, the dignity of Muslim women has remained captive to political cost-benefit. Now the Nation has an opportunity to emancipate them from this situation. My Government has tabled a Bill on Triple Talaq in Parliament.”