"Fatwa in Imrana case should not be enforced"

Staff Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Islamic expert and member of the National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities Tahir Mahmood on Tuesday said the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) fatwa in the Imrana case need not be strictly imposed on an innocent and unwilling couple desirous of continuing in marriage.

The AIMPLB on Monday upheld the Darul Uloom Deoband's edict that Imrana who was allegedly raped by her father-in-law in Muzaffarnagar, could not be allowed to live with her husband. The pronouncement has led to outrage and disbelief among the people, particularly women's groups.

In Prof. Mahmood's opinion, in a country like India where Islamic law was "only selectively applicable under the authority of its own law," the rule need not be strictly imposed.

Explaining the history behind such a fatwa, he said a woman subjected to sexual indignity by any of her husband's ascendants or descendants becomes `haram' (prohibited) for him was a rule of worldly wisdom evolved by some religious jurists of Arabia over 1,000 years ago. "Those learned jurists of the time had ruled that such conduct of the husband's relatives would create `hurmat-e-musharat' (legal bar of affinity under rules of prohibited degrees) between him and the wife," Prof. Mahmood said, adding that pronounced in a society where almost instant remarriage of divorced women was the order of the day, this was a pro-women verdict enabling the wives outraged by sexual misbehaviour of their male in-laws to walk out of their marital bond and seek a new life elsewhere.

"Government intervention needed"

Describing the fatwa as totally unacceptable, All-India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) vice-president Brinda Karat said it amounted to denying a woman her dignity and basic human rights. "The edict, whether by fatwa or by caste panchayat, has no legal or constitutional sanction and cannot be accepted," she said, adding that it was time the Government intervened to support the victim. "It is a shameful thing that the Minorities Commission has not condemned the decision so far," she said.

The AIDWA along with other women's organisations and concerned individuals will hold a demonstration in Muzaffarnagar on June 30 to condemn the fatwa and to demand that Imrana and her husband, Ali Mohammad be allowed to live together without fear of violence, she said.

"It is indeed barbaric that instead of ensuring severe action against the culprit who has committed such an unpardonable crime, the so-called learned men are interpreting customary religious laws and pronouncing judgments which not only go against the law but also against all humanitarian norms," Ms. Karat said.

Womenpowerconnect, comprising several women's groups, described the edict as "unacceptable" and said it "violated all norms of dignity and human rights." "It is time that the law enforcement agencies step in to support the victim," Ranjana Kumari, convenor of the organisation, said.