Anti-Triple Talaq Activist Shayara Bano To Join BJP; Meets Party Leaders Today

Dehradun, July 6: Anti-triple talaq activist Shayara Bano is all set to join Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Bano who belonged to Uttarakhand led the fight against controversial triple talaq.  According to a report published in Hindustan Times, the forty-year-old activist met BJP state president Ajay Bhatt on Friday. Bano's father Iqbal Ahmed also accompanied her. The activist 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,” reported Hindustan Times quoting Bhatt as saying. Bano was one of the original petitioners in the triple talaq case. She approached the Supreme Court in 2016 with the demand to declare talaq-e-biddat given her husband as void. Four other petitions were also attached with her petition. The Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan also filed the petition against the triple talaq making it as the sixth petitioner.

In August 2017, the top court ruled in the favour of the petitioners. In its verdict apex court declared the practice of instant triple talaq as unconstitutional. The triple talaq allows Muslim men to get separated from their wives by saying talaq thrice. Bano said that she met BJP leaders and expressed her desire to join the party. She also praised the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The activist added that with the help of the PM Muslim women got justice.

Bano expressed also expressed her will to work for women’s rights while working for the BJP. She was herself a victim of triple talaq. Her husband Rizwan Ahmed, an Allahabad based property dealer dissolved the 15 years of marriage by dispatching a ‘talaqnama’ to her while she was at her parent’s place in Kashipur.

She then approached the Supreme Court, demanding that talaq-e-bidat, nikah halala and polygamy under Muslim personal laws should be declared unconstitutional. Talaq-e-biddat is a practice in which Muslim men can give divorce by saying ‘talaq’ thrice immediately. Under this practice, divorces can also be delivered through written talaqnama or even by phone or text message. Three-month iddat period was not followed in talaq-e-biddat. Three month period is meant for reconciliation. Nikah halala is a Sharia law  according to which, a Muslim woman requires to marry another man, consummate the marry and then get a divorce to marry her first husband again.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 06, 2018 10:53 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).