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India's Supreme Court Blocks Muslim Instant Divorce Law

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Until today, Muslim men in India could instantly end a marriage just by uttering, I divorce you, three times. India's Supreme Court has struck down the practice. From New Delhi, NPR's Julie McCarthy reports on the landmark decision.

JULIE MCCARTHY, BYLINE: The case split India's Muslim community and the decision split the Supreme Court. The 3 to 2 vote heralds the end of so-called triple talaq, or three utterances of the Arabic word meaning divorce. For many women, it was a case of flagrant discrimination. For many Muslim men, it was a tradition as old as Islam. But in the words of Justice Kurian Joseph, who joined the majority, it posed a simple question. Does triple talaq have any legal sanctity?

Supreme Court lawyer Sanjay Hegde says the answer was a resounding no.

SANJAY HEGDE: Court basically said that triple talaq does not stand constitutional scrutiny because it was entirely arbitrary. It ran against the constitutional guarantee of equality.

MCCARTHY: Reports surfaced during the case of men divorcing their wives via text messages. Defenders of triple talaq, largely the self-appointed Muslim Personal Law Board, which governs the community, agreed that it was not a favored form of divorce in Islam. One just as reasoned that this instant form of ending a marriage foreclosed something that Islam promotes, a chance of reconciliation between a man and wife. On those grounds, he declared the triple talaq is against the holy Quran and failed a key legal test.

It was not essential to the Muslim faith. Sanjay Hegde said the ruling could have far-reaching impact.

HEGDE: A door has been opened for courts to reign supreme over personal religious practices and especially personal religious practices which are seen as contrary to constitutional morality.

MCCARTHY: The Muslim women who pleaded before the court, victims of instant divorce, had faced down formidable pressures from within their own community to be silent. And the fact that right-wing Hindu activists supported their cause only made their isolation deeper. Supreme Court advocate Karuna Nundy says theirs was no small victory.

KARUNA NUNDY: To be able to approach the court themselves, to seek rights that are due to them, to not be bound by the patriarchs of their community and be given justice, I think is very important.

MCCARTHY: Finally, I feel free, said Shayara Bano, one of the women who had brought the case. I have the order that will liberate many Muslim women. Julie McCarthy, NPR News, New Delhi.

(SOUNDBITE OF RJD2'S "SUITE 2") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Julie McCarthy has spent most of career traveling the world for NPR. She's covered wars, prime ministers, presidents and paupers. But her favorite stories "are about the common man or woman doing uncommon things," she says.
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