Will continue my struggle to end triple talaq, says India's first female imam Jamida

Jamida, the 34-year-old state secretary of the Quran Sunnath Society, became the first female imam in India's history to lead Friday prayers on January 26.

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Mallapuram: Jamida, the first Indian Muslim woman to lead the Juma (Friday) prayers, has said that despite all odds she would continue her struggle to end triple talaq and achieve equal rights for women of her community.

"I will continue my struggle to end triple talaq and bring women into the mainstream," Jamida was quoted as saying by ANI.

Jamida, the 34-year-old state secretary of the Quran Sunnath Society, had become the first female imam in India's history to lead Friday prayers on January 26.

Jamida leading the Juma prayers had not been very well received by the Islamic fundamentalists since men traditionally conduct the Friday prayers across the country.

Jamida has since come under severe attack from the fundamentalists who have accused her of defying Sharia and the basic tenets of Islam.

Referring to her criticism by the fundamentalists, Jamida said those who have been criticising her, have been doing so without logic and hence were abusing and targeting her personally.

“There is no such rule in the Sharia that only men can be imam,” Jamida said.

She created history by leading the Friday afternoon special prayer session at a mosque in Kerala`s Malappuram district on January 26.

Following several threat calls, Jamida was given a security cover by the Kerala government.

Remarks from Jamida have come at a time when the Narendra Modi government is trying hard to get the Triple Talaq Bill passed by Rajya Sabha during the ongoing Budget Session.

The BJP government had on Sunday said that it would "leave no stone unturned" to ensure the passage of the triple talaq bill in the Budget Session of Parliament and asserted that it would talk to various parties for a consensus on the issue.  

The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2017 related to triple talaq, the Codes of Wages Bill, 2017 and Rights of Children to Free and Compulsory Education, 2017 are among the important bills that the government aims to table for discussion in the Budget Session of Parliament which began on Monday.

Reiterating that the Triple Talaq bill will be a game changer in the lives of millions of ordinary Indian Muslim women, Union Minister Suresh Prabhu said that the Indian government does not discriminate on the basis of religion and believes that all citizens should enjoy equal rights.

The minister said this at the World Economic Forum (WEF) summit.

Participating in a session on 'India's Role in the World', he also stressed that fruits of growth should reach everybody and said that if the government was against a particular community, then why should it have brought the triple talaq bill.

"If we were against the Muslims, we would not have thought of bringing a triple talaq bill to Parliament. If you talk about Muslims, say 14 percent of the population, then 7 percent are women.

"If we were against a community, then why would we bring bills like this to protect a woman even at the expense of alienating maybe a sizeable population?

"We do not believe that we should use a religion at the time of elections to make sure that one particular class of people would vote for us," he said yesterday.

The legislation, which proposes to criminalise instant triple talaq and suggests up to three years in jail as punishment for a Muslim husband who divorces his wife by uttering "talaq" thrice, was cleared by the Lok Sabha recently.

(With ANI inputs)