Another Rape Victim
In a virtual repeat of the Imrana case, a mother of four has been driven out of her village in Murshidabad district by a Muslim panchayat after being allegedly raped by a local man over three months ago.
The panchayat ruled her marriage stood annulled in the wake of the incident and neither could she live with her husband nor could she enter the predominantly Muslim village, about 200 km from Kolkata.
At least the husband has not disowned the victim here
“I want to keep my wife as it is not her fault, but people are not allowing me to keep her. Who will look after our four children?” her husband told reporters here.
His family was opposing his wife’s stay in the house after the incident and the matter was taken up by the panchayat of the village.
She was also not allowed to stay at her father’s house by her stepmother, and this left her virtually homeless.
It is shameful that women get mistreated for no fault of theirs. Instead of punishing the perpetrator the victim is being punished.
I agree with confused about the Uniform Civil Code. It is about time India adopted the UCC but so far I have not come across a sane discussion on the UCC in the desi-blogospehere. Maybe someone can point me to one.
November 4th, 2006 at 6:01 am
Do you really take the argument of confused seriously? If separate muslim law is the reason for what happened in that village, Hindu women shouldn’t be facing any abuses. So, Uniform civil code is a fake Hindutva propaganda.
November 4th, 2006 at 2:47 pm
Krish,
I don’t think that the crime of rape happened because of MPL but the treatment of the women after the rape is because of that. Her not being able to live with the husband even though the husband wants her to stay with him is sad.
Even Hindu women suffer and there are hindu laws that discriminate against women. Even those laws will have to be done away with.
Uniform Civil Code does not mean Hindu law to me.
As for discrimination against women, it happens even in countries that have UCL. The difference is of degree.
November 4th, 2006 at 6:21 pm
Hi Polite, I am going to write a post on this issue today. Hang on.
November 4th, 2006 at 7:12 pm
Uniform Civil Code is needed, no doubt about that. But this incident has nothing to do with Islamic Justice.
Polite bhai, Panchayats in Western UP, Haryana are all alike, often dictatorial/autocratic.
November 6th, 2006 at 4:30 am
Krish,
Will look forward to your post
Indscribe,
The panchayats are no doubt like what you said. Everywhere it is the same story. Look at the recent incident of a dalit victim. It was ordered by the panchaat.
In this particular case I thought that the idea that the woman cannot live with her husband once raped came from the islamic justice aspect. Correct me if I am wrong and I will take out the islamic justice tag from the post.
November 7th, 2006 at 1:32 pm
[…] Regarding the Imrana case and as Polite Indian feels that it was a flaw of Islamic laws, i have this (These are the words of Dr. Zafarul-Islam Khan) In this particular case, we had two problems. One: the media deliberately distorted the verdict of a village council (panchayat) as “Shariat Panchayat” which was a lie and caused a lot of uproar and problems here because that verdict ordered the alleged victim to marry her father-in-law: a patently wrong and insulting advice. The other problem was with the Hanafi fiqh which surfaced because of this incident. In some of their old books it is said that even zina (rape) is like marraige and it invalidates the marriage of a son whose wife is “raped” by his own father. This interpretation is peculiar to the Hanafi fiqh where a crime (haram) is considered enough to invilidate a solid contract like marriage while in the Quran the words used are “la tankihoo ma nakaha aabaokum” where “nakaha” can mean only marriage and not a crime like rape whose perpetrator has to be punished if the crime is proved. This problem with the Hanafi fiqh will not go away as our mutis and scholars are very rigid. But at the same time people from their own ranks have called for ijtihad in such matter where no clear text from the Quran or Hadith supports such a view. Ulama of other masalik have spoken out against this opinion. […]
November 7th, 2006 at 1:36 pm
Polite Indian,
Please read this and the controvery regarding the rape from Islam point of view (the last para)
November 7th, 2006 at 1:54 pm
Oops sorry for that long trackback
i had no control over it
November 7th, 2006 at 4:57 pm
[…] Polite Indian wants to have a sane discussion on the “Uniform Civil Code” issue. I thought I will put forward my views here. Since I am addressing everyone including the Hindutva goons here, I cannot have what Polite Indian refers to as sane debate. I will use my usual Hindutva bashing style to put forward my views. […]
November 7th, 2006 at 6:26 pm
Read my response on my blog and also here