'Nothing but a sex racket'

(From left) Hasan Kamaal, Zeenat Shaukhat Ali, Javed Anand and Feroze Mithiborwala speak out. Pic/Bipin Kokate

Strong words and views flew at an afternoon press conference on Thursday held at the Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sangh at Azad Maidan. Activists and scholars from the self-explanatory Indian Muslims for Secular Democracy (IMSD) slammed the Muslim Personal Law Board's (MPLB) "anti-women, un-Quranic and unconstitutional views" with reference to nikah halala and other issues borne out of a patriarchal self-serving mindset, said the four speakers on the dais.

Target ulemas
The progressive IMSD army took aim at ulemas who, they said collectively, "claim to be defending Islam. In fact, they are perpetuating patriarchy. In the process, they are helping in the demonising of Islam and Muslims."

Their primary target was Nikah Halala or Halala which is a type of Muslim marriage. In Nikah Halala, a woman who is divorced by her husband may face a situation in which the man, who had divorced her, may want to marry her again. But, she has to first marry another man and consummate the marriage with that man. Only after getting a divorce from the second man can she can remarry her previous husband.

Shocked, ashamed
Javed Anand, convenor, IMSD, said that "As Muslims we are hurt, ashamed and shocked that MPLB is defending Halala and claimed recently that it is Quranic and should not be done away with. This is falsity. Halala has become a sex racket condoned by self-serving Muslims who wrongly claim to be knowledgeable and defenders of Islam."

Not Islamic
Islamic studies scholar Zeenat Shaukhat Ali working IMSD committee member said unequivocally that, "Nikah Halala is haram in Islam. I congratulate the courts here for throwing out triple talaq and I hope the same will be done for Nikah Halala, too."

The IMSD said staunchly that it supports pending petitions in the Supreme Court calling for a ban on nikah halala, polygamy, muta (temporary marriage) and misyar (traveller's stop-gap marriages). The IMSD proposes to intervene in the Supreme Court in support of the petitions filed by Sameena Begum and Naish Hasan demanding the outlawing of such unconstitutional practices.

Hasan Kamaal, working member of the progressives group called himself a, "practising Muslim". He scoffed that he had met many such self-styles maulvis "the daadhi waale (bearded ones) who were ready to give their 'services' for Nikah Halala".

Sabarimala salute
Stressing gender parity as one of the bulwarks of their agenda, the quartet also lauded the recent Sabarimala verdict by the Supreme Court which had said everybody (including women) had a right to enter the Sabarimala temple. "This is an extension of our fight for equal access to religious places," said IMSD co-convenor Feroze Mithiborwala citing how IMSD had taken a flag bearer role in fighting against restrictions for women in the Haji Ali dargah case. At that time, the rallying cry of 'Haji Ali hai sabke liye' had risen in triumph over the crashing waves of the sea as the ban on women had been lifted.

A market
"Now we want to see a ban, but this time it is for Nikah Halala, which has spawned a sex market," said Mithiborwala. In ancient times the Halala, they stated, was "a Quranic methodology aimed at protecting women from being treated as playthings. Now, this has been perverted by the ulema and turned into its very opposite: an arrangement that effectively reduces a woman to a sex toy."

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