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December 21, 2006

India: Drunken Words Lead to Islamic Divorce

Traditionally, alcohol is "haram" or forbidden to Muslims. One man from Parbodhi village near Hajipur in Vaishali district in Bihar state, India, got drunk and is now paying the price, states New Kerala. A few days back, drunken Mohammed Mokhtar was engaged in a row with his wife and blurted out "talaq" three times at his wife, Sakina Khatoon.

In Islamic law, all a man needs to do to be rid of his wife, and all responsibilities towards her, is to say "talaq" three times. As a result of Mokhtar's drunken words, a local Muslim group has put pressure on his wife and children. Village religious leader Maulana Inamul Haque has declared that the declaration of "talaq" is Islamically binding.

Mokhtar is protesting that he did not intend to split from his wife, saying: "I frankly and honestly admit that even if I pronounced divorce to my wife, it was in a drunken condition. I hardly recall that I did it. I requested people to forgive me if I pronounced divorce in an inebriated condition but some village men forced us to live separately."

Sakina is prepared to live with her husband, but is being forced to take her children and live apart, as a result of villagers' pressure.

In Islamic tradition, she can not remarry her husband in a simple manner. She must go through halala - a process whereby she marries another man, and then divorces him, to then remarry her former husband.

This process is not so easy. A woman cannot divorce a man on her own. Only a cleric can arrange a Muslim woman's divorce.

And who said Islamic law is fair to women?

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at December 21, 2006 2:05 PM

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