by admin | May 25, 2021 | Interviews
By Mohd Asim Khan,
New Delhi : The government is ready to discuss the triple talaq bill in the Rajya Sabha and was open to suggestions from the opposition — but referring it to a Select Committee made no sense, Union Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi has said.
The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill — commonly called the triple talaq bill as it criminalises “instant” divorce among Muslims — is scheduled to be taken up in the Rajya Sabha in the coming week as part of the government’s business.
“Let’s discuss the bill in the House and the members can move amendments. Nobody can stop a member from moving any amendment,” Naqvi told IANS in an interview.
“But where is the sense in insisting on refering the bill to a select committee of the House? What will the Select Committee do? Even the House can scrutinise legislation,” he added.
The Select Committee may also invite suggestions from stakeholders such as various Muslim organisations and women’s bodies, which the government has apparently not done.
The opposition, Muslim bodies and women’s rights groups have accused the government of “unilaterally” drafting the legislation without seeking any opinion from the stakeholders or those who would be directly affected by the proposed law.
However, Naqvi said: “We have said it earlier too and reiterate that the government is open to suggestions on the bill from the opposition and others.”
But on the question of negotiating the penal provision — which is the main bone of contention — the minister said the bill would make no sense without this as the practice of triple talaq continues even after the Supreme Court banned it.
Under Section 4 of the bill, “Whoever pronounces talaq upon his wife by words, either spoken or written or in electronic form or in any other manner whatsoever, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and fine.”
It also provides for a subsistence allowance for a divorced woman and her children as determined by a magistrate and provides custody of the minor children to the woman in case of divorce.
The government had introduced the triple talaq bill in the Rajya Sabha on January 3 this year during the winter session of Parliament. The Lok Sabha had earlier passed the bill.
Almost all the opposition parties have objected to the penal provision in the bill and had insisted it be sent to a Select Committee of the Rajya Sabha for closer scrutiny. Congress leader Anand Sharma and Trinamool Congress member Sukhendu Shekhar Roy had moved amendments to this effect.
Sharma even suggested the names of the 17 members of the select panel from the opposition’s side, leaving it to the government to give its names.
The government, however, vociferously objected to the proposal, citing various technical reasons. The opposition even demanded voting on the issue on the day the bill was introduced as well as the next day, January 4.
However, on the first day, the treasury benches members created a ruckus, forcing the chair to adjourn the House for the day, saying voting could not be done unless the House was in order.
The next day, the government listed the bill at the bottom of the day’s business, prompting loud protests from the opposition, which wanted it to be taken up early and a vote taken. The chair said he could not help as it was the government’s prerogative at which position to list a bill. Amid pandemonium, the House was adjourned for the day.
The winter session concluded the next day on January 5, and the triple talaq bill is still pending in the upper House.
On March 16, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Vijay Goel, while announcing the coming week’s business, also listed the triple talaq bill for considering and passing.
(Asim Khan can be contacted on mohd.a@ians.in )
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business Summit, Entrepreneurship, Events, News, Social Round-up, Women Entrepreneur
Internationally acclaimed social activist Mrs. Uzma Naheed of Mumbai addressing a Press Conference in Bhopal
By Pervez Bari, Maeeshat.in,
Bhopal: A 3-day National Exhibition & Shopping Carnival which is christened as “Jazba” is being organised by women here from March 16-18, 2018 in Hindi Bhavan under the aegis of an NGO of women called IIWA, (Iqra International Women’s Alliance). It is being held under able supervision of internationally acclaimed social activist Mrs. Uzma Naheed of Mumbai.
Mrs. Uzma Naheed, president of IIWA, made the above announcement while addressing news persons here on Wednesday. She informed that IIWA is an NGO working for Socio-Economic Empowerment, (SEE), of the underprivileged women. Women need a platform, a place where they can securely make use of their talent in a financially rewarding way. With constant hard work IIWA has successfully involved 3000 underprivileged women across the country producing more than150 items.
Mrs. Naheed, who is very much active in empowering women of underprivileged class, Manoj Shrivastva, Principal Secretary in the Department of Commercial Tax, Culture and Religious Trusts and Endowments Govt. of MP, will be the Chief Guest in the inaugural function which would be held on March 16th from 10 am in Hindi Bhavan, near the Polytechnic square.
She said that IIWA encourages them by nurturing the creativity of the women’s inherent natural talents in production of various handicraft items which have ready market. IIWA uses its creativity in modifying the existing arts and crafts of each state of India as per the latest trend. IIWA believes in forming an alliance with NGOs, Media and Corporate sector; this concept was highly appreciated by the United Nations in the International Conference in Turkey.
Mrs. Naheed told a questioner that IIWA also promotes women to develop new skills or modify their products to suit current trend with continuous training and workshops. In short IIWA is a platform where talents meet opportunities to womenfolk so that they manufacture any product without disturbing their family lives. Their main concern is 1. What to make? and 2. Where to sell? IIWA helped thousands of women in establishing their own business and improve their earnings. The economic uplift of women is the main agenda of IIWA, she declared.
A poster of the 3-day National Exhibition & Shopping Carnival which is christened as “Jazba”
Meanwhile, recalling Justice Sachar Committee Report Mrs. Naheed said that it had declared that Muslims are under the Below Poverty Line and Muslim women have crossed the dangerous line. It means this is an emergency situation where it is necessary to work for economic empowerment of women. As such IIWA an NGO of women is working with all communities as poverty is a curse for every one.
“We are happy that the Govt. of India is very concerned on this subject particularly women empowerment. India is a large country where every community should come forward to serve to poor and provide them an opportunity with new ideas of business to uplift them economically. If every Indian worked for this cause it will help us to alleviate poverty by providing opportunities to the talents they have. Women are working as labourers earning paltry sum”, she stated.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Kahkashan Parveen
New Delhi : Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu on Friday appointed Kahkashan Parveen, a JD-U member from Bihar, to the panel of Vice Chairman.
The appointment comes after various members of the House urged the Chairman to appoint a female member in the panel on the occasion of International Women’s Day.
On Thursday, the Congress’ Viplove Thakur had pointed out that there were no women in the Vice-Chairman’s panel.
“I have decided to appoint Kahkashan Parveen to the panel of Vice Chairman with effect from April 3 in place of Basawaraj Patil, who is retiring from the House in April,” Naidu announced.
Parveen was chairperson of the Women’s Commission in Bihar and had unsuccessfully contested the Assembly election in 2010 from Kahalgaon in Bhagalpur district and had also served as Mayor of Bhagalpur.
The Rajya Sabha Chairman nominate from amongst the members of the Council a panel of not more than six Vice Chairmen, any one of whom may preside over the Council in the absence of the Chairman and the Deputy Chairman.
Besides Patil, Satyanarayan Jatiya, Tiruchi Siva, T.K. Rangarajan, Bhubaneswar Kalita and Sukhendu Shekhar Ray are the current members of the panel.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Interviews
Salman Khurshid
By Prashant Sood,
New Delhi : The triple talaq bill is a step towards imposing a Uniform Civil Code and the judicial verdict on the practice is a lesson for the Muslim community that matters such as polygamy and nikah halala might similarly end up in court if reformative steps are not taken, Congress leader Salman Khurshid has said.
Khurshid, who has written a book “Triple Talaq: Examining Faith” (OUP/pp 260/Rs 316), said a bill on the subject that is pending in parliament “does not make sense” as the practice has been outlawed by the Supreme Court.
Khurshid, a former External Affairs Minister, accused the BJP-led government of pursuing a “divisive agenda.”
“What is the effect of taking away triple talaq? This is what I have tried to say in my book — that triple talaq is bad. We are not for it. It’s a silly way of giving talaq.
“But there is no difference between talaq and triple talaq, except that talaq is reversible and triple talaq is irreversible,” Khurshid told IANS in an interview.
Asked if the reform on triple talaq should have come from within the Muslim community, Khurshid said: “I agree that this is something that the Muslim community, through its chosen leaders, should have addressed before the court took hold of it. And, therefore, this is a lesson about other matters that might similarly end up in court if the community does not take steps to reform.”
Asked to elaborate, he said: “Polygamy is one such thing and the nikah halala is another one. I think there are good ways of showing and explaining that both of them do not pose as great a threat to equality as is made out to be, but certainly popular perception about them is very bad. Therefore they should be addressed from within the community.”
As per “nikah halala”, a woman divorcee has to marry someone else and consummate this marriage before getting a divorce to remarry her earlier husband.
Khurshid noted that only a microscopic percentage of the Muslim community resorts to instant triple talaq and reforms normally happen if something becomes overwhelming and people think it is becoming a burden. “If it is microscopic, it often gets overlooked, neglected. And then there were larger issues that people amongst Muslims were preoccupied with,” he said.
Asked if the triple talaq bill was a step towards imposing Uniform Civil Code (UCC), he said: “Yes, it certainly is.”
“There is a hidden agenda, or not-so-well hidden agenda, there of trying to impose (the UCC). But even (for) trying to impose it, this is a very shabby way of doing it. You can’t impose the code on the peril of criminal culpability. If it it’s to be introduced, it has to be introduced as a code and that code is not criminal. The code has to be a civilian code.”
Khurshid said talaq is part of personal law and nobody has challenged it.
“It is only triple talaq that has been challenged, and the world over the understanding is that triple talaq or a talaq said three times, six times, 100 times, is only to be considered as talaq said once and talaq said once is perfectly valid and, therefore, triple talaq’s first talaq is also perfectly valid,” Khurshid said.
He said the Congress is very clearly against the criminalising element in the triple talaq bill.
“To impose criminal liability in essentially a civil matter, which is the matter of a family affair, I think, is wrong. Also on fundamental jurisprudential principles, to punish somebody for something that does not exist is against the principles of criminology,” he said.
The Congress and several other opposition parties have said that the bill, which is pending in the Rajya Sabha after the Lok Sabha passed it, should be examined by a select committee.
Khurshid said even women who are against triple talaq have not come out in favour of criminalisation.
Khurshid, who assisted the court during the triple talaq hearing, said if the government is genuinely concerned about divorced women, it should provide for them irrespective of the community they belong to.
Accusing the BJP of pursuing a “silly divisive agenda” to portray Muslims as “regressive”, “counter-productive for modern society” and Muslim society being divided among men and women, Khurshid said: “That is a completely wrong understanding of Muslim society.”
He said the BJP was “grievously mistaken” if it thinks it will get votes of Muslim women due to the triple talaq bill. “You think Muslim women don’t watch television and see what happened to Pehlu Khan and Mohammad Akhlaq who were killed by cow vigilantes? I think it is a very myopic understanding of Muslim women.”
Asked about the perception that the BJP got votes from the Muslim community in (last year’s) Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, Khurshid said: “That’s an impression they give. I have very serious doubts.”
He said the government will not find the going easy on the bill as it lacks a majority in the upper house.
“They still do not have strength to pass it in the house. They may get the strength after a year or whatever, and they just have to wait till then. And then there will be matter of testing it in the courts. It is not smooth sailing as they might imagine,” Khurshod conteded.
(Prashant Sood can be reached at prashant.s@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Employment, Muslim World, Overseas
Riyadh : Saudi Arabia has launched the recruitment of female investigators, according to a local media report.
On Sunday, the Saudi Public Prosecution announced that job applications by women will be accepted until March 3, Xinhua news agency quoted the Al Arabiya report as saying.
The applicants should be qualified for the position and with a relevant university degree.
The candidates should also pass aptitude tests and physical exams to prove their fitness for the position, said Attorney-General Sheikh Saud Al-Mojeb.
He said once selected, the female investigators would have to take up various specialised roles including criminal investigation, testifying in courts, in addition to some other executive roles.
The move is aimed at integrating females into most sectors in Saudi Arabia and changing the shape of the kingdom’s Islamic conservative society.
As part of the new reforms, Saudi women were already allowed to attend football matches and apply for driving licences.
—IANS
