Activists reject Muslim Women's Rights Day

A group of activists on Monday rejected the Modi government’s declaration of celebrating August 1 as ‘Muslim Women’s Rights Day’ to mark the enactment of the triple talaq law.

“We collectively, as citizens of India – Muslim and non-Muslim women, men and trans persons across castes and regions – reject the cynical optics of a ‘Muslim Women’s Rights Day’ by a government intent on reducing all Muslims to second-class citizens,” said a statement signed by more than 650 activists, students and academics.

On August 1, 2019, the Triple Talaq Bill, which criminalises instant divorce by Muslim men to their wives, was passed by Parliament. On Saturday, the Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi announced that August 1 would be observed as Muslim Women's Rights Day to celebrate the second anniversary of the law.

“The Triple Talaq law was an abomination. It was then, and still is, nothing but a charade,” the statement said, adding that the law had a “sinister” purpose – “to show Muslim men their place in new India”.

It said no such law was needed to “protect Muslim women, or secure their rights” since the Supreme Court had already struck the Triple Talaq down.

The statement, signed by Farah Naqvi, Syeda Hameed, Kavita Krishnan, Annie Raja, Shabnam Hashmi, Teesta Setalvad, among others, called the Triple Talaq law an abomination, and contended that constitutional rights of Muslims in India have been decimated in recent years in a systematic way.

“Such a government has no moral right to declare any national day in the name of Muslim women,” the statement said.

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