Tackle triple talaq, urge women's activists

MUMBAI: Musician Raza Ali Khan, whose German wife Sema has filed a bigamy case against him, toldTNN that he had married actress Neelima Azim, but maintained that he had divorced his first wife.
Sema filed a police complaint on June 9 at the Santa Cruz police station and a criminal case of bigamy at the Andheri metropolitan court. Majlis, an organisation that fights for women''s rights, has taken up her case.Says the lawyer fighting the case, "Since Sema and Raza also had a civil marriage in Calcutta under the Special Marriage Act, Raza is committing bigamy by marrying someone else without divorcing Sema first. Under Section 494 of the IPC, a person convicted of bigamy faces imprisonment up to seven years."
Women''s rights activists who have been working on the issue of the triple talaq, which Muslim men can use to their advantage, have a lot to say about it. "The media has created the impression that the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board is the final authority and that Muslim women have no recourse to the courts," says Flavia Agnes of Majlis.
"That isn''t true. There have been several court rulings, including supreme court rulings, on the issue, which say that before you give a talaq you have to have arbitration, settle the economic aspect and so on. That''s my position on it. A man shouldn''t be allowed to divorce his wife in the privacy of his house—he has to do it before a court and two witnesses and follow all the procedures.
Nikahnamas or marriage contracts have to be standardised and not left to the whims and fancies of individual kazis. This will save Muslim women a lot of heartache."