Who wants uniform civil code?

Why Muslims are vehemently opposing the Uniform Civil Code?  Why don’t let their woman have equal rights?  Why are they following outdated religious scripts?  Why are they not joining with mainstream life?  Why are they not accepting the law of the country? Don’t they know that the petition is filed by Muslim women only?  Are they special in this country?  And more and more questions are raised by Non Muslims.  

Well, not all the questions are relevant considering questioner’s lack of awareness about the petition sent to the Prime Minister by Bharathia Muslim Mahila Andolan and the concept of Uniform Civil Code. There won’t be such barrage of questions if they know the crux of the matter well.

The letter sent by Bharathia Muslim Mahila Andolan to prime minister and posted on January 1, 2016 at their website clearly demands a codified personal law for Muslims. I repeat that they demand ‘a codified personal family law for Muslims’ and are not asking Uniform Civil Code. “We have come to realize that just as Hindus, Christians and Parsis have their own personal laws, Muslims too must have their own codified Muslim personal law which ensures equality and dignity to Muslim women” is their main demand in their letter to Prime Minister. “However in the absence of a codified law, customary practices which are divergent from the values and principles of the Quran (my emphasis: different than Quran) have emerged. New codes have been introduced globally with the hope that they will introduce the rule of law in family matters and end arbitrariness and variances in judicial decisions. In India there is a need to have a comprehensive codified family law to ensure justice within the family” by Bharathia Muslim Mahila Andolan

Further, they demand the consolidation of Quranic verses for Muslim marriage and other women related rights. “This Act, based on the values and principles of the Quran as prescribed in the Quranic verses [Schedule 1], is to consolidate, clarify and codify the provisions of Muslim law and related procedure regarding Muslim marriage, divorce, maintenance during marriage, maintenance after divorce and widowhood, custody and maintenance of children and inheritance”

“In the process the Muslim women have been denied their Quranic rights as well as their rights as equal Indian citizens. Almost all Muslim countries world over such as Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan and even Bangladesh and Pakistan in our neighbourhood have codified personal laws governing marriage and family matters. Thanks to the self-appointed conservative leaders, Indian Muslims are denied this opportunity. As a result, we see instances of triple talaq and polygamy in our society.

Justice for Indian Muslim women can be enabled either through amendments to the Shariat Application Act, 1937 as well as the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939 or a completely new enactment of Muslim personal law.” Is the demand mentioned in their petition to Prime Minister, not the Uniform Civil Code.

What do they want?

1.    Minimum age of marriage of girl to be 18 and boy to be 21years
2.    Consent of both parties must be obtained without force or fraud
3.    Minimum mehr to be equivalent of one full annual income of the groom to be paid at the time of nikaah
4.    Talaak-e-Ahsan to be method of divorce requiring mandatory arbitration over a 90 day period; Oral unilateral divorce to be declared illegal.
5.    Maintenance during marriage is the responsibility of husband even if wife has an independent source of income
6.    Maintenance after divorce as per the Muslim Women’s Protection on Divorce Act, 1986
7.    Polygamy to be declared illegal
8.    Both mother and father are natural guardians of the child
9.    Custody of children based on best interest of the child and the decision of the child
10. Halala to be made an offence
11. Muta marriage to be made an offence
12. In property matters Quranic shares to be applied after making will and clearing debts
13. Daughters to get equal share as sons through hiba or gift-deed or will
14. Compulsory registration of marriages
15. Qazi to be held accountable for violations during talaq, polygamy and such other matters

Most of their demands are as mentioned or given in Quran to Muslim women, but withheld by Muslim men following customary law making women as subservient to men as is the case with other communities.

Where is the question of uniform civil code here?  Or is it the  right time towards Uniform Civil Code? 

Zafar Sareshwala, close aid of Narendra Modi and Chancellor of Moulana Azad University said (Lakashmi Iyer, Mumbai Mirror October 13, 2016)  "One-third of Muslims live as minorities in non-Muslim countries around the world,” he said. “So UCC is not going to be a problem for us. It is going to be a problem for Hindus. This was pointed out by none other than RSS ideologue Guruji Golwalkar in an interview to Organiser editor KR Malkani in the magazine’s September 1972 issue . He opposed UCC saying it was not suited to a country like India with diverse communities,” he stated

Uniform Civil Code is a vague argument which will never take shape in India considering the political masters grand game of dividing people in the name of everything.  I hope my Hindu friends will understand the real issue that is the requirement of internal reform within All India Muslim Personal Law board to remove customary laws and bring right Shariat law to curb the men’s domination to women.


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