The Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA) which sees Uniform Civil Code (UCC) as an opportunity to get gender justice for Muslim women in its submission to the Law Commission has sought uniformity largely around marriage and post-marriage laws. Its submission, they said, should be looked at whenever the government looks to codify Muslim Personal Law or goes for UCC. The listed submissions have 25 points that cover marriage, divorce, adoption, custody and guardianship and maintenance and inheritance.
"In our submission, we want affirmative aspects to be retained like consent before marriage, Mehr (amount bride receives at the time of marriage) and discriminatory practices like polygamy, Nikah Halala / Muta (temporary marriages) and denial of custody to go away," said Zakia Soman, co-founder of BMMA.
"There has been a lot of opposition from other communities on the UCC. We too do not want UCC to be bulldozed. There should be wider consultation on something like UCC with a draft shared first. But whenever the government decides, we want our listed points to be implemented either through a codified personal law or UCC," said Noorjehan Safia Niaz.
As a personal law or common law, BMMA seeks implementation of fixed age with consent from both sides, registered qazis and women qazis for marriages with clearly defined roles and procedures for marriage, ban on child marriage, polygamy and temporary marriage practices,
"We feel Mubarah and Talaak-E-Ahsan as a divorce form be included and preferred. It is divorce through mutual consent for each side. Also during Iddat (waiting period after divorce or widowhood) period women be allowed to go visit public places," said Noorjehan.
Renunciation of religion, said BMMA, should not annul marriage or the right from marriage be done away. "If any of the partners change the faith, it should not lead to annulment of marriage. Similarly, if there is a divorce and the partner changes faith to marry someone else, it should not be that right over children are not there," said Soman.
"We also want that Muslim women to be natural guardians of their children irrespective of them being divorced or widowed. A child should also have the right to which parent they want to choose and both should have the right to them. Equality and justice are central to faith and what is happening is Islamic jurisprudence which is weighed by patriarchy. A woman loses custody of her son when he turns two and that of a daughter when she attains puberty. If the husband dies, custody goes to the grandfather or father's male relative," said Noorjehan.
Adoption, maintenance and inheritance, of submitted BMMA should happen as per prevailing adoption laws and criminal procedure code. "In case of divorce, the number of years of marriage should be a deciding factor on the stake of what a woman should get as she has given and contributed to the family," said Noorjehan.
