As a Pasmanda Muslim woman, it pains me that India took 70 years to question talaq

T he Supreme Court outlawed instant triple talaq in 2017, a judgment Parliament eventually affirmed through legislation in 2019. But while talaq-e-biddat was struck down as arbitrary and cruel, talaq-e-hasan escaped scrutiny. It is less intense for sure, but is it any less unequal in practice?

It still allows a husband to end a marriage unilaterally by saying “talaq” once each month. Now, the Indian Supreme Court has finally turned its attention to whether such a one-sided mechanism can survive in a constitutional democracy that claims to value equality. The difference between instant and staggered injustice, after all, seems only procedural, not moral.

The court’s shock was almost palpable. While hearing a batch of petitions on talaq-e-hasan and its implications for gender equality, th