CII's "historic' recommendations on "talaq'

The Council for Islamic Ideology (CII) under the chairmanship of one of Pakistan's top scholars of Islam, Dr Khalid Masud, has recommended that divorce laws in the country be brought in line with the edicts of the Quran by giving the right of divorce to wives too. It says that a woman has the right to demand divorce and such a divorce would be deemed to go into effect 90 days after "a woman has filed for separation, even if the man does not respond by that time".

Next, the CII has recommended the registration of divorce proceeding the same way as nikah on a new form that would safeguard the right of the woman under Quran. It wants the nikahnama amended too in order to describe in it the right of the wife to ask for divorce without being bequeathed the right to do so by the husband. The CII report says the husband must be made to register the "first divorce" too instead of the current practice of sending the woman a notice of three simultaneous talaqs. Only after the registration of the first talaq would the later talaqs become valid.

Another drawback for women has been addressed by the CII. A woman demanding divorce has to surrender assets given to her by the husband but not her dowry. The bridegroom should declare his assets at the time of his first marriage and give full details about his first wife and children in the nikahnama in case of a second wedlock. The practice today is that a woman approaching the court for khula (asking for divorce) is accused of possessing assets that were not given to her. Some husbands force wives to surrender their dowries too.

A CII delegation called on President Asif Ali Zardari, the constitutional appointer of the Council, and told him that only around 10 percent of the current Islamic legal provisions would need to be amended. The President responded by setting up a committee under Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Mr Babar Awan to look into the report and plan its implementation. This is where the battle for Quranic law will be fought and political reactions from the opposition would be carefully examined before going ahead with a truly revolutionary reform.

Of course, the PPP government will immediately come under pressure from a number of quarters. The non-religious political parties in the opposition may secretly agree with the CII recommendations but they will issue threatening statements against implementing them, calling the CII an extension of the Musharraf period. The religious parties will start issuing equally dangerous statements which the "media mujahideen" will highlight since the clergy of all stripes is considered a de facto authority on Islam. On top of it all, the Taliban and Al Qaeda will declare themselves opposed to the reform and vow to kill anyone who favours it.

But the truth is right there if you want to know it. Women must have rights given to them by the Holy Quran. This has been highlighted in the past by Islamic scholars and by lawyers. It is no accident that the recommendations of the CII, without being aware of it, conform to the findings of a Pakistan activist, Ms Rashida Muhammad Hussain Patel, the founder in 1985 of the Pakistan Women Lawyers Association (PAWLA), a pressure group for the reform of laws discriminating against women.

In her book "Woman versus Man: Socio-Legal Gender Inequality in Pakistan" (2003), Rashida Patel had demanded reforms that the CII has now adopted. She objected to the Muslim Family Laws Ordinance of 1961 on the grounds that it asked the bride to declare whether or not she was married earlier whereas no such provision was applied to the bridegroom. The chapter on divorce discusses the three ways of giving talaq to a wife. The good way is according to the Quran but simultaneous three-time divorce (talaq bidat) is not according to the Quran even though it is acceptable to the court of law. Ms Patel asked: how can a husband who is just one party to the contract of marriage annul the marriage unilaterally without the consent of the other signatory to the contract? She called it a misinterpretation of Islam.

The Family Laws Ordinance of 1961 never became law because the clergy rejected it. Since 1961, clerics have been going to court asking for the annulment of the provision of registration of nikah and talaq. In 2003, in a discussion on TV, a cleric bluntly told Pakistan's renowned Islamic scholar Javed Al Ghamidi that the practice of the old jurists was to be held above the Quran, despite the fact that the practice of talaq is not uniform in the Islamic world.

Will the PPP soon get cold feet and will Mr Babar Awan, himself a popular orator on Islam, tell the CII to "cool it"? It would be a great day in the history of Pakistan when its women get their rights from its parliament. *

Editorial Daily Times