美国国家公共电台 NPR Muslim Women In India Ask Top Court To Ban Instant Divorce

 

LOURDES GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

It's banned in many Muslim countries, but instant divorce persists among India's Muslims. There, men have the power to end a marriage just by uttering a single word which means divorce. Now India's supreme¹ court is hearing the petitions of several former wives to ban the practice. From New Delhi, NPR's Julie McCarthy has our report.

JULIE MCCARTHY, BYLINE³: Seema Parveen was no more than 16 when her first husband divorced her. The marriage was as short as it was brutal⁴. Three decades on, Seema recalls her husband threatening to hurl⁵ her from the balcony and his rage when she bore him a daughter and not a son.

SEEMA PARVEEN: (Foreign language spoken).

MCCARTHY: His whole family was upset. So I took my daughter and went to my mother's. That's when my husband wrote and said talaq.

PARVEEN: (Foreign language spoken).

MCCARTHY: I didn't know what was happening, she says. All it requires for a Muslim man in India to sever² marital⁶ bonds is to declare talaq, which means divorce. Pronounced three times, it's irrevocable. Critics condemn⁷ talaq as unilateral and cruel. Seema was divorced, or talaq'd (ph), three times by three different men.

PARVEEN: (Foreign language spoken).

MCCARTHY: She remarried for the third time in 2010 and says, shortly thereafter, her husband and his sons would beat me, lock me in a room and deprive me of food. After abandoning her, husband number 3 delivered talaq by telephone. But despite the violence, the 42-year-old Seema is determined⁸ to go back to his home.

PARVEEN: (Foreign language spoken).

MCCARTHY: Where will I go? My father's dead. There's no one to take care of me, she says. But I have rights to my husband's pension, and I'm not giving that up.

ZAKIA SOMAN: In an instant, she becomes homeless. So that status of a wife, she wants to keep.

MCCARTHY: Zakia Soman is co-founder of the Indian Muslim Women's Movement and says her organization sees many women who want to stay in unhappy marriages to avoid being destitute⁹. And she says domestic violence and the male prerogative¹⁰ to declare instant divorce are intimately linked. Soman calls talaq a sword hanging over a woman's head.

SOMAN: Do this, or I talaq you. Don't do that; otherwise, I'll talaq you. I should know because I had a very bad marriage myself. And being beaten was my fate for 16 long years.

MCCARTHY: Soman fled after she and her son were savagely¹¹ beaten. And days later, the letter arrived from her husband announcing divorce. But up until then, Soman says, the social pressure to remain in that marriage was immense.

SOMAN: You know that - that women trap? I need to make this work. You know, having all the people around you who judge you all the time, no? If you are talking against your husband, you're a bad - you're not a good woman. You know, that whole burden of the institution of marriage.

MCCARTHY: In 2015, Soman's organizations surveyed India's Muslim community, the world's third largest. It found that 1 in every 11 women is subjected to this casual way of ending a marriage. Only less than five percent ever gets any financial support. Activists¹² like Soman say India's conservative clerics sanction this practice, relegating¹³ Muslim women to second-class citizens.

SOMAN: Where is the need to, you know, consult a woman? Where is the need to take her opinion? - is what they feel. And they are sort of passing it off in the garb¹⁴ of religion.

MCCARTHY: India's supreme court will consider whether talaq is integral to Islam and, thus, a practice constitutionally protected under freedom of religion. The Muslim Personal Law Board, which unofficially governs the community, says talaq is valid¹⁵ as divine law and opposes any reforms. Board Member S. Q. R. Ilyas...

S. Q. R. ILYAS: Talaq is an honorable way of dissolving a marriage without going to the court of law, ending the marriage.

MCCARTHY: But Islamic scholar Tahir Mahmood says the Quran sanctions divorce only after a period of reflection and attempted reconciliation¹⁶, usually lasting¹⁷ three months.

TAHIR MAHMOOD: This is a precondition for divorce. Who bothers about it? Nobody bothers about it.

MCCARTHY: Mahmood says no man is free to pronounce an instant divorce. That, he says, is a perversion¹⁸ of Islam and should be struck down.

MAHMOOD: Original version of the Quran - it insists on gender¹⁹ equality. And that is precisely²⁰ what is missing in India.

MCCARTHY: If most Islamic countries have reformed their marriage and divorce laws, Mahmood says - why can't India? Some of the women who have petitioned to the courts to abolish instant divorce say aligning²¹ it with the Quran would end the exploitation. Others, like thrice-deserted Seema, would like divorce placed before the civil courts, removed from religion altogether. Zakia Soman says the courts provide women a level playing field.

SOMAN: It won't be easy because legal reform is one part of the overall reform, which is required in society, which will happen, which has to happen. This is just the beginning.

MCCARTHY: The supreme court reconvenes hearings next week on whether to ban talaq as a violation²² of equal rights or uphold it as a religious practice.

Julie McCarthy, NPR News, New Delhi.

(SOUNDBITE OF VIJAY IYER TRIO'S "HUMAN NATURE")

1 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

2 sever   

v.切开，割开；断绝，中断

参考例句：

• She wanted to sever all her connections with the firm.她想断绝和那家公司的所有联系。
• We must never sever the cultural vein of our nation.我们不能割断民族的文化血脉。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

5 hurl   

vt.猛投，力掷，声叫骂

参考例句：

• The best cure for unhappiness is to hurl yourself into your work.医治愁苦的最好办法就是全身心地投入工作。
• To hurl abuse is no way to fight.谩骂决不是战斗。

6 marital   

adj.婚姻的，夫妻的

参考例句：

• Her son had no marital problems.她的儿子没有婚姻问题。
• I regret getting involved with my daughter's marital problems;all its done is to bring trouble about my ears.我后悔干涉我女儿的婚姻问题, 现在我所做的一切将给我带来无穷的烦恼。

7 condemn   

vt.谴责，指责；宣判(罪犯)，判刑

参考例句：

• Some praise him,whereas others condemn him.有些人赞扬他，而有些人谴责他。
• We mustn't condemn him on mere suppositions.我们不可全凭臆测来指责他。

8 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

9 destitute   

adj.缺乏的；穷困的

参考例句：

• They were destitute of necessaries of life.他们缺少生活必需品。
• They are destitute of common sense.他们缺乏常识。

10 prerogative   

n.特权

参考例句：

• It is within his prerogative to do so.他是有权这样做的。
• Making such decisions is not the sole prerogative of managers.作这类决定并不是管理者的专有特权。

11 savagely   

adv. 野蛮地，残酷地

参考例句：

• The roses had been pruned back savagely. 玫瑰被狠狠地修剪了一番。
• He snarled savagely at her. 他向她狂吼起来。

12 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 relegating   

v.使降级( relegate的现在分词 )；使降职；转移；把…归类

参考例句：

14 garb   

n.服装，装束

参考例句：

• He wore the garb of a general.他身着将军的制服。
• Certain political,social,and legal forms reappear in seemingly different garb.一些政治、社会和法律的形式在表面不同的外衣下重复出现。

15 valid   

adj.有确实根据的；有效的；正当的，合法的

参考例句：

• His claim to own the house is valid.他主张对此屋的所有权有效。
• Do you have valid reasons for your absence?你的缺席有正当理由吗？

16 reconciliation   

n.和解，和谐，一致

参考例句：

• He was taken up with the reconciliation of husband and wife.他忙于做夫妻间的调解工作。
• Their handshake appeared to be a gesture of reconciliation.他们的握手似乎是和解的表示。

17 lasting   

adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持

参考例句：

• The lasting war debased the value of the dollar.持久的战争使美元贬值。
• We hope for a lasting settlement of all these troubles.我们希望这些纠纷能获得永久的解决。

18 perversion   

n.曲解；堕落；反常

参考例句：

• In its most general sense,corruption means the perversion or abandonment.就其最一般的意义上说，舞弊就是堕落，就是背离准则。
• Her account was a perversion of the truth.她所讲的歪曲了事实。

19 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

20 precisely   

adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地

参考例句：

• It's precisely that sort of slick sales-talk that I mistrust.我不相信的正是那种油腔滑调的推销宣传。
• The man adjusted very precisely.那个人调得很准。

21 aligning   

n. (直线)对准 动词align的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• There are signs that the prime minister is aligning himself with the liberals. 有迹象表明首相正在与自由党人结盟。
• ToolTips provide textual hints that assist in drawing lines and aligning objects. 工具提示提供了协助画线和对象对齐的文本提示。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

22 violation   

n.违反(行为)，违背(行为)，侵犯

参考例句：

• He roared that was a violation of the rules.他大声说，那是违反规则的。
• He was fined 200 dollars for violation of traffic regulation.他因违反交通规则被罚款200美元。