Shayara Bano, the Uttarakhand woman who led the legal battle against triple talaq, is all set to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Forty-year-old Bano met BJP state president Ajay Bhatt on Friday with her father Iqbal Ahmed and expressed her interest to join the party. “She (Bano) visited us today. She is a global personality now and we would be more than happy to welcome her into the party,” said Bhatt.
Bano was the original petitioner in the triple talaq case after she approached the Supreme Court in 2016, demanding that the talaq-e-biddat pronounced by her husband be declared as void. Petitions of four other women were tagged with Bano’s petition. The Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA) is the sixth petitioner in the case.
In August 2017, the apex court ruled that the practice of instant triple talaq, which allows Muslim men to divorce their wives instantly by saying ‘talaq’ thrice, is unconstitutional.
“I met BJP leaders today and expressed my desire to join the party,” said Bano who hails from Kashipur in US Nagar district. Praising the party, she said, “It was with the support of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that we got justice.”
She said women in the Muslim community “continued to be brutalised” over practices such as triple talaq, nikah halala, and unequal property rights.
{{/usCountry}}She said women in the Muslim community “continued to be brutalised” over practices such as triple talaq, nikah halala, and unequal property rights.
{{/usCountry}}Bano plans to enter politics soon. “It will be done soon. I am pursuing it,” she said.
“I want to work for women’s rights while working for the party (BJP),” she said.
Her marriage of 15 years was dissolved in minutes unilaterally with her husband -- Allahabad-based property dealer Rizwan Ahmed -- dispatching a ‘talaqnama’ to her while she was at her parent’s place in Kashipur.
After her husband abruptly ended the marriage, she approached the apex court, demanding that talaq-e-bidat, nikah halala and polygamy under Muslim personal laws be declared unconstitutional.
Talaq-e-bidat is a practice in which Muslim men utter ‘talaq’ thrice instantly -- sometimes via a written talaqnama, or even by phone or text message -- not adhering to the three-month iddat period, which is meant for reconciliation and arbitration.
Nikah halala is a law that requires a woman to marry another man, consummate the marriage and then get a divorce in order to return to her first husband.