Muslim Women Rights Day is observed on August 1 across the nation. The day marks the enactment of the law against Triple Talaq, which came into effect on August 1, 2019. While commemorating the second anniversary of the law, the Ministry of Minority Affairs last year declared that August 1 will be observed as Muslim Women Rights Day. And therefore, it was in 2021 that Muslim Women Rights Day was celebrated for the first time.
This day is of a great importance in the lives of women from the Muslim community as the law against Triple Talaq liberated them from the atrocities committed on them in the terms of the divorce.
While declaring the day, the then Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi had also reportedly acknowledged the significant decline in the Triple Talaq cases. ANI had quoted Naqvi as saying, “Muslim women across the country have overwhelmingly welcomed the law.”
In 2021, the day was observed by the different organisations in the country. According to the news agency PTI, Naqvi, Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani and Labour Minister Bhupender Yadav had attended the “Muslim Women Rights Day” programme in Delhi and also interacted with many Muslim women.
Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smt @smritiirani Ji & Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Shri @byadavbjp Ji attended #MuslimWomenRightsDay programme in New Delhi. They also interacted with the women. @PMOIndia pic.twitter.com/NIkujDsYVm
— Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi (@naqvimukhtar) August 1, 2021
Triple Talaq, which is also known as Talaq-e-Biddat, is a form of divorce that was practiced in Islam, in which a man could divorce his wife by pronouncing Talaq three times. Moreover, it wasn’t needed for the man to cite any reason for the divorce, and at the time of the pronouncement of Talaq, the wife was also not needed to be present on site.
It was the case of Shayara Bano vs Union Of India that laid the foundation stones for this historic move. Advocating that the said practice is discriminatory and against the dignity of the women, Shayara Bano challenged it in Supreme Court.
The day holds immense significance, as the government believes that the law has strengthened the “self-reliance, self-respect and self-confidence of the Muslim women of the country and protected their constitutional, fundamental and democratic rights by bringing the law against Triple Talaq.” As per a government report, it was in a majority judgement, on August 22 in 2017, that the Supreme Court set aside the practice of divorce by pronouncing Triple Talaq as violative of Article 14 of the Constitution.
