Mr. Christopher from the My Wedding Favors blog with some encouraging news. Muslim women in India have been touted by women around the world as the most mistreated and right-denied people on the planet. Having to cover almost every inch of their bodies in public to avoid enticing men, being subservient to their men and forced to do many things that would have American women crying foul.
Well thanks to The All India Muslim Women Personal Law Board (AIMWPLB) and the release of what’s called the “Shariat Nikahnama”, things are getting a lot more difficult for Muslim men in India to carry on their male chauvinistic ways towards their wives. The organization established many new divorce laws that create more equality between Muslim men and women. Muslim women now have the right to divorce their husbands if they’re caught having illicit affairs, if he has AIDS and even if she is forced to do unnatural sex acts.
AIMWPLB President Shaista Amber says, “We have framed the new nikahnama strictly in accordance with the tenets of Islam, which clearly prohibit any kind of harassment or oppression of a married woman by her husband.” It also allows for a woman to get a divorce if the husband is denying to grant it. Other ground breaking amendments include the ability to divorce if there has been no sexual relations for a year, if the husband doesn’t provide for the wife and family, if the husband has abandoned her in excess of 4 years, or in the case of any kind of ill treatment or torture.
Basically this is huge progress for Muslim women in India and there’s much more to come. Not to say that the Muslim women will take a stand and take advantage of laws designed to protect them, but at least there are laws now available for those women who say, “Enough is enough”. The new laws have Muslim men shaking in their robes because this changes a once archaic view of marriage and begins to put things in line with the rest of the world. Maybe there is hope on the horizon for equality among the sexes in India after all. The opportunity exists, so hopefully Muslim women will stand strong and take advantage of these new laws afforded to them that have kept them in marital slavery for many generations.