Triple Talaq victim supports provision of punishment in Bill

A victim of instant Triple Talaq, Farhana has welcomed the provision of punishment in the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill 2017 that seeks to criminalise this practice of divorce, ahead of its tabling in the Rajya Sabha.

Farhana on Monday urged all parties to support the Bill in the upper house, adding that the punishment of three years would be a credible deterrence.

"It should be passed in the Rajya Sabha, and the Opposition parties should also extend their support. We all will be benefited because the provision of punishment of three years would make people think before taking this step," Farhana told ANI here.

Farhana said her husband had gone to Saudi Arabia without telling her or meeting their daughter, and later in-laws told her that she would have to leave her husband's home.

The Bill has already been passed by Lok Sabha, and is set to be introduced in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. If the Bill gets a green signal in the upper house as well, it will be forwarded to the President for signing it into a law.

The Bill, if enacted, will make Triple Talaq a criminal offense. It proposes a three-year jail term for a Muslim man who divorces his wife in any form of spoken, written or by electronic means such as email, SMS, and WhatsApp.

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi has opposed the Bill, citing that it has a penal provision for a civil law.