In the Muslim community marriage is a written contract, not a religious norm but a social convenience. The Maulavi ascertains consent of both the bride and the bridegroom. Then draws the contract that both have to sign with four attesting witnesses. Only then a short ceremony of religious rites is performed to declare them to be married. I kept on wondering why marriage is a contract only in the Muslim community and not in others. The written contract consolidates the marital ties than in other religions is the best explanation as physical relation without such a written and signed contract is strictly forbidden in Islam. However the divorced husband has no more obligations to provide the maintenance allowances to his divorced wife or wives.

The permitted practice of multiple marriages in Islam has always been severely criticized but everyone overlooks the circumstances that originated it and injunctions attached to the social custom. After the Muslim exodus to Medina to escape the tortures by rich Qureshi gentry of Mecca, the ensuing violence was taking heavy toll of young. Their wives were left without safety net as their parents did not welcome them back. It was then to provide social status and economic support, young were allowed to take them as wives but with strict injunctions not more than four and all wives given equal love, affection, social status and economic support as first original wife. Not only wives, their children by previous marriages were also to be given equal status and affection. Otherwise, wives of killed young in war had no social status or economic means to live with dignity and forced to engage in body use to survive. Thus a well meaning directive degenerated into evil custom over the centuries.

The pernicious caste division in the Indian Muslim is sharper than in the majority section with 90 per cent Muslims at least outside Gujarat, and other economically advanced states, live in extreme poverty. Their poverty introduces evil social practices like oral divorce, was prevalent only in Indian subcontinent, in the poor sections more widely. Consequent uncertainty of marital status for women, uneducated poverty ridden with nowhere to go for survival, led to being dragged in the flesh trade. Even otherwise, their entire life they spent as slaves chained by their feet to their stove.

In dense populations of Muslims in areas like the Jama Masjid and the Turkman gate in Delhi, most married women had not stepped out of their homes alone for seven decades. Bus service was not available. Three-wheeler vehicles demanded exorbitant charges for return journey. Taxi fares were beyond their paying capacity. Bus journey had other great disadvantage. The social practice demanded their outage from homes only under burqua. It invited the prying hands on all parts of their bodies and pinches in crowded bus. They could not tolerate it nor could protest as it invariably landed them in police stations with embarrassing probing.

Burqua compulsion is not unique religious custom only in Islam. The practice originated in India in ancient times. With several aggressors around with their evil intents to meet their physical lust, women folk sought safety in covering their skin from head to foot outside their homes. Practice continues except in Iraq and Iran after the Iran Emperor Raza Shah Pehlavi launched campaign to free women on compulsion and authorized police force to snatch away the burqua but only after prescribing stringent punishment for roadside roaming Romeo.

The practice of end to the written contract marriage through oral pronouncement thrice of word divorce was certainly evil to make marital status of poor women uncertain and unpredictable. The Supreme Court verdict encouraged the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to convert it into a political campaign. Even otherwise he had consistently campaigned in Gujarat for a decade for modern education of Muslim girls as the State chief minister. He had personally waited at the Muslim households to take girls to school for admission. Mass Media my not notice but the medium of masses do not ignore such news.

The Prime Minister made the issue of and his intent to end the evil practice of oral termination of contracted marriages and thus end marital uncertainty in life of the Muslim women as the main part of his election campaign in the 2017 assembly poll in Uttar Pradesh to win 325 of 403 seats. The former chief minister Mayavati was amazed by hands down victory of the BJP candidates even in the Muslim majority constituencies. She was not aware of the significant impact of earlier insistence for education of the Muslim girls in Gujarat or promise of better life to married Muslim women through termination of evil practice. The liberated women voted for his party. Mayavati did not know nor does his fan club know the significance of his campaign. The party considers the legislation as merely a severe blow to the Muslims. His earlier campaign for increasing education to the Muslim girls had salutary impact. The Muslim literacy rate in Gujarat is significantly higher and a shade better than in other states. It is better than the majority community rate in South Gujarat. The fan club ought to know the true significance of his achievement though it does not fit in the BJP philosophy.