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November 17, 2005
India: Deobandi Mufti's Divorce Fatwa Gets Him Arrested
We brought you the curious, if ludicrous tale of the relationship between Anwar Khan and his wife Arzmand, who lived in Khargone, in Madhya Pradesh. Mrs Khan had endured only 15 days of marriage with Mr Khan before she fled the marriage bed in 1996, never to return. She went to a court run by a civil judge, Nirmala Chavda, who granted her a divorce, and then she married another man.
Things in a normal society would have been regarded as finished between Arzmand and her ex-husband, but we are talking about Muslim mores here. Mr Khan is still bleating about how he wants Arzmand back, even though he only lived with her for 15 days, nine years ago, and being a Muslim is upset that a mere woman had asked for a divorce. After all, Talaq (Muslim divorce) can only be instigated by the man.
Whether Anwar truly loved Arzmand or just wished to own her, he approached the local Muslim authority on such matters, Mufti Mohammed Rafiq Kasmi, of the local Deobandi madrassa. Deobandi thought, as we described earlier, is extreme and fundamental in its outlook. It believes in women wrapping up and attending to domestic matters only, and also assumes television-watching to be sinful.
Mufti Kasmi, on hearing Anwar's pleas, agreed with him. Only a man can issue talaq. And to make things worse, the judge who granted Arzmand her legal divorce was not a Muslim, so he had absolutely no right to have an opinion on Mr Khan's sacrosanct marital rights.
So Mufti Mohammed Rafiq Kasmi wrote out a fatwa, which stated that Shariat law does not recognise the verdict of a non-Muslim magistrate in issues of talaq, and a woman cannot marry until her husband has given her a divorce.
This arrogant statement was issued in a Sendhwa court last Monday, attended by Judge B. S. Ohariya, and all hell broke loose in the local Hindu community. The local branch of the extreme Hindu party, the "Vishva Hindu Parishad", threatened to take to the streets unless Mufti Kasmi was arrested for insulting India's legal system. Even the local Muslim community was alarmed by the brazenness of the Mufti's order, and had threatened to boycott his sermons until he revoked the fatwa.
I warned that there would be tears before bedtime for the arrogant Mufti (and the possessive but pathetic Mr Anwar), and earlier today, according to Rediff, the Mufti was arrested.
Mufti Kasmi (Qasim) was dragged before Chief Judicial Magistrate S R Bamania who released him on a bail bond of 10,000 rupees.
Arzmand (Arjumand) Bano is now happily married to a schoolteacher, while Mr Anwar is still working as a casual labourer for the Public Works Department. He is still awaiting the outcome of a court case, for demanding that his wife's family pay him dowry money. Dowry is illegal under the Dowry Prohibition Act.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at November 17, 2005 9:31 AM