Uniform Civil Code And Personal Law: The Case Of The Shah Bano Case

1021 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Indian women oppression

The Indian judiciary has given various judgments that have directed the parliament to display urgency in the enactment of a common civil code. Even after these judgments, there has been no concrete step taken in the direction of construction of a uniform code which would ensure that the position of women in every community is equal to that of men, and there are no discriminatory and unreasonable laws causing hardships to women.
 The Shah Bano Case (1985)
The debate over the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) and personal laws resurfaced in Indian politics 1985, after the Shah Bano controversy sparked off.
In brief, the facts of this case dealt with a penurious Muslim woman, Shah Bano Begum who was given triple talaq by her husband. She thereafter claimed …show more content…

One of the problems being discussed is for the women to not suffer because of unjust personal laws.
The strangest part is that the Constitution of India specifically has given a responsibility to the state to make special provision for women under Article 15(3) of the Constitution, even then the personal laws are highly misused either due to patriarchal approach or inefficient legislation where no specific protection of women’s right is there.
Misapplication of the Muslim Personal Law and the patriarchal construction put on it has disadvantaged women a great deal. Questions of women’s rights have entered into a complex situation especially when a basically liberal Constitution like India’s has allowed religious personal laws to continue as a part of its legal system where women are being denied the fundamental rights they are entitled to.
A uniform civil code would make sure that no women suffers due to belonging to a certain community. The enactment of UCC will promote Gender equality and welfare of

Show More
Related

  • Compare The Difference Between Declaration Of The Rights Of Woman And Female Citizens

    811 Words  | 2 Pages

    With minor differences such as the belief that public misfortune was due to ignorance, omission, or scorn for the rights of women. Also mentioning that all women are born free and therefore are entitled to liberty, security, and especially resistance to oppression. As all men do all women should also have the right to vote in matters of the public. Along with that would come the right for a fair trial taking into account the law of nature and reason and equally can be charged and prosecuted as seen fit by the case or crime. Something very interesting in the set of laws includes the term that men and women share equally all duties and painful

    Read More

  • Why and How Women Are Oppressed in Saudi Arabia

    2088 Words  | 5 Pages

    Yahyaoui Krivenko, Ekaterina. Women, Islam And International Law : Within The Context Of The Convention On The Elimination Of All Forms Of Discrimination Against Women. Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2009. eBook Academic Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 4 Nov. 2013.

    Read More

  • Ethnographic Studies Essay

    1141 Words  | 3 Pages

    Overall, Islam and Gender is a valuable addition to the field of ethnography by examining the everyday struggles, experience, and involvement of women within the Islamic law. Hosseini targets a Western audience and hopes to leave them with a better understanding of the Islamic judiciary system and Iranian feminism. She successfully provides her readers with an unprejudiced account of the shari’ah and family law, and even includes the ideologies of those opposing her personal beliefs. Hosseini specifically requests Muslim women to take a stand develop their own local, Islamic feminist movement and openly advocates new discourse within Islamic jurisprudence.

    Read More

  • Women's Rights in the Middle East

    1683 Words  | 4 Pages

    The country of Pakistan has not always oppressed women. The former man in charge of Pakistan professed, “No struggle can ever succeed without women participating side by side with men. There are two powers in the world; one is the sword and the other is the pen. There is a third power stronger than both, that of women (Lamb and Yousafzai 31).” It was not until a general named Zia ul-Haq threw a coup and seized control of the government that women and men’s rights became incomparable under Islamic Law. Zia’s regime did not allow women to play most sports, have access to healthcare, or open a bank account, and, in...

    Read More

  • A Thousand Splendid Suns: The Powerful Story Of Two Women

    710 Words  | 2 Pages

    How a child raised will influence how he/she solves the life issues include cultural issues that will faced. Government’s policy and legal protections must be considered to protect and to change the negative thinking of public with low level education about women's rights. Religion and other spiritual subjects is another significant factor that can shift the perspective to respect all human rights.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Movie Lunchbox

    1417 Words  | 3 Pages

    It is often said that sexism is a subject of the past, and yet women still face gender oppression throughout their lives. The concept of Gender oppression, defined as persecution associated with the gender norms, relations, and stratification in a society. Indian culture perceives men as the breadwinners and women as the caregiver for her family. In a country like India, Patriarchy has been a norm for about two hundred years; the society of India has emerged to become a patriarchal society. Women have been empowered from raising their voices and are kept silent in cases, including sexual abused or verbal abuse. Such issues have imposed women of India to live under a glass ceiling, limiting them to reach their full potential. This structure has lead India to be a patriarchal society, where men are the breadwinners, and women are caretakers of their families.

    Read More

  • Women as a Minority Group

    1272 Words  | 3 Pages

    Women have been treated unequally since the beginning of time. Just recently have things began to change for the better for women and the future of our society. The increase in women’s equality rights will take time, but some day women and men will be treated equally. This cannot happen until each of us is able to look at a person and just see another individual, not a male or a female, white or black, rich or poor… a person as just a person.

    Read More

  • Gender Inequality In The Workplace Essay

    840 Words  | 2 Pages

    Responsibility of The Women and Equality Unit (1969) is preventing economic diversity in the society. It is regulated by introducing new policies supporting women’s rights.

    Read More

  • Legal Pluralism Essay

    1818 Words  | 4 Pages

    There is a collective existence of different forms legal systems, because of the country’s diversity in culture, language and religion. This diversity is able to flourish in India only because of representation of different communities. Diversity and pluralism are acknowledged in India which safeguards the interests of different social groups and communities. This led to law being seen as necessarily pluralistic. However, after colonisation there was an effort made by the British to make law uniform, an essential condition in what was seen as ‘modern law’. Nonetheless, after independence an effort was made to have a pluralistic legal system as this would lead to better representation of different communities. This is how the Panchayati Raj system, a form of local self-government came about. Panchayats were reintroduced in 1992 after the British rule, and there a panchayat in every town of village. The people of the village elect the members of the ‘panch’, whose responsibility is the local administration of the village. In many places, gram panchayats are also known as gram sabhas. In this manner, different forms of legal pluralism shape everyday ordering and disputing in rural and urban India. They relate to formal law as well as customary legal orders equally. The two governance systems interact, which can be termed as formal law and traditional law. Customary law is also termed as unnamed law as it does not refer to a specific basis of

    Read More

  • Examples Of Gender Discrimination In India

    1090 Words  | 3 Pages

    But in most of the western countries men and women are equal and they can make their own decisions. Parents will encourage girls for education or else if they show interest in any field they will accept their choice. If parents do not encourage their daughters for education, employment opportunities decreases, which affect the economic position of the country. The situation in most of the developed countries is different. Women are allowed to do any kind of work and they get equal pay with men. Discrimination leads to Poverty because of less opportunities in each and every field for women in India. So discrimination has to be completely eradicated by implementing new laws. Then the poverty will be reduced and economic position of the country

    Read More

  • Rape in Modern India

    2103 Words  | 5 Pages

    ...s not exist. This is a complicated situation and it requires various actions. India is in a transitional phase, and there are many power struggles happening at the same time. Women are gaining influence in the country, men do not always respond well to that. High castes have lost the support of the government when it comes to their inherent social status. Muslims and Hindus have been fighting over control for decades, and the traditional values that were held for so long are at odds with the modern ways. Each of these contribute to the stabilization of violence against women, and solving this problem will not be a simple as we may like. It is easy to accuse Hindu-Indian culture of being compliant in the crimes committed against its women, but we simply cannot ignore all the other factors that play a role. Complex situations call for complex solutions, nothing less.

    Read More

  • Women In Islam Essay

    1118 Words  | 3 Pages

    The role and place of Women in Islam has changed drastically, in a positive way, over the past millennium: the changes can be greatly attributed to the Prophet Muhammad, and the Qur’an. To understand the changes in women’s rights and freedoms, one must understand their role and place before Islam was created, which happened in the Arabia Peninsula, now Saudi Arabia (Angha). Before Islam was formed women lacked many of the basic human rights, and they were treated as more of a burden in their culture then someone who should be respected, but that is not the case today. Though women in Islam have gained many rights, there is still some controversy over whether or not women are still being oppressed and treated like second class citizens compared

    Read More

  • The Status of Women in Islam

    2801 Words  | 6 Pages

    Zakaria, M. M. (trans.). Sahih Muslim Sharif (All in one volume), Dhaka: Mina Book House, 2008.

    Read More

  • The Rape Law And The Nirbhaya Rape Case

    2011 Words  | 5 Pages

    The rape laws found in India before 1983 were not stringent enough which used to lead to absurd judgements by the judges based on the laws available to them , many a times the accused were not held liable to commit any offence against the victim because of poor Evidence act and also the way rape was defined and also how the consent was taken into consideration in the announcement of the judgements , the age of consent kept could not get most of the victims any justice. The Mathura Rape case judgement was seen as the most absurd judgement and which also depicted clear need for new laws to be amended or at least a little expansion in the laws was needed so that the judgements can be in favour of the victims. Laws providing stringent punishment was also a necessity clearly to at least get the crime rate decrease. But even the new laws had some loopholes which ere discussed to be changed but not much were acted upon , until the 16 December,2012 Nirbhaya Rape case which called in a serious need for changes in the laws to make them more stringent for the people committing offences, the main question is as to how much the new amendments help in protecting women, as , it’s not only the laws that needs

    Read More

  • Gender Inequality In Islam

    1345 Words  | 3 Pages

    Women who have the misfortune of living in predominately Muslim societies often are confronted with adversities concerning their rights in marriage, divorce, education, and seclusion. Consequently, many Westerners seeing a lack of equality towards women in these societies consider it as a confirmation of their own misconceptions about Islam itself. Islam is often rejected as being an intolerant and violent religion that discriminates against and subjugates women, treating them as second-class citizens. From a Muslim’s perspective, Islam’s stance on women can be approached by two opposing views. Scholars amongst the Muslim apologists have claimed, “The verses in the Qur’an represented Muhammad's intention to improve a debased condition of women that prevailed during the Jahiliya, the time of ignorance before Islam came into being.” (Doumato, 177) If inequalities still exist between men and women, they cannot be attributed to Islam, but are a result of the misinterpretation of Islam’s true meaning. Others have entirely denied the notion of inequality between men and women in Islam, claiming that the alleged inequalities “are merely perceived as such by foreign observers who confuse seclusion and sex difference with inequality.” (Ibid.) Many Muslim apologists defend the Koran as noble for the very fact that it raises women to an equal status of men despite their inferiority.

    Read More

More about Uniform Civil Code And Personal Law: The Case Of The Shah Bano Case

Open Document