UP woman alleges gangrape in name of Nikah Halala; case filed against husband, 8 others

The Rampur Police have registered a case against nine people, including the victim's husband.

Image Credit: ANI

RAMPUR: A woman hailing from the Rampur district in Uttar Pradesh has alleged gang-rape by four persons, including her husband, in the name of 'Nikah Halala'.

According to ANI, the woman alleged that she was given triple talaq by her husband after which she was married to someone else for three months. 

The victim further claimed that the man with whom she was married for three months later got married to another woman.

''After my husband gave me triple talaq, I was married off to someone else for 3 months but he later married another woman,'' the woman said.

The Rampur Police have registered a case against nine people in this connection.

The fresh incident of gang-rape in the pretext of 'Nikah Halala' highlights the plight of Muslim women who are being subjected to such cruelty after getting an instant divorce from their husbands as per the Sharia law.

Several Muslim women's rights organisations have come out in support of the Narendra Modi government's new legislation banning triple talaq with provision for jail up to three years to those who give instant divorce to their wives.

The Modi Government formulated a bill called The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2017 and introduced it in the Parliament which was passed on 28 December 2017 by the Lok Sabha.

The bill makes instant triple talaq (talaq-e-biddah) in any form - spoken, in writing or by electronic means such as email, SMS and WhatsApp ''illegal and void'', with up to three years in jail for the husband. 

MPs from RJD, AIMIM, BJD, AIADMK and AIML had opposed the bill, calling it arbitrary in nature and a faulty proposal, while Congress supported the Bill tabled in Lok Sabha by Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.

Triple Talaq is a form of divorce that is practised in India whereby a Muslim man could legally divorce his wife by pronouncing the word 'talaq' three times.       

'Nikah Halala' is a practice intended to curb the incidence of divorce under which a man cannot remarry his former wife without her having to go through the process of marrying someone else, consummating it, getting divorced and observing a separation period called 'Iddat' before coming back to him.

The Supreme Court had earlier this month agreed to consider the listing of a batch of petitions challenging the practices of polygamy and 'nikah halala' among Muslims.