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More than 30 years after Shah Bano case, the landmark verdict of the Supreme Court on Triple Talaq reminds 67-year-old realty agent Jameel Ahmad of those heady days when he visited the then prime minister Rajeev Gandhi in Delhi.
While welcoming the apex court verdict on Triple Talaq from his Indore home, Jameel Ahmad said:
MA Khan, the husband of Shah Bano, was a well-known lawyer of Indore with a couple of law degrees.
Also Read: MP’s Only Sharia Court Had Banned Triple Talaq Seven Years Ago
After divorce in 1979, Shah Bano appealed for maintenance in the local court.
Khan challenged the verdict in the high court. There, his appeal was rejected. Then he took the case to the Supreme Court. And there too, he lost the case.
Jameel Ahmad, the youngest son of Shah Bano, says:
Shah Bano died of brain haemorrhage in 1992. “My father became a different man after marrying for the second time. He used to treat his five children from his first wife with contempt,” recalls Jameel.
Jameel has been embittered, and he hates his father for treating his mother and his five siblings cruelly
Jameel reveals that after his father divorced Shah Bano, they faced many hardships.
Jameel was almost in tears when he recalled a very nasty incident. “After divorcing my mother, once I went to meet my father on Eid. But he slapped me and hurled abuses at me.”
Jameel vividly remembers the days when the Supreme Court in 1985 had upheld Shah Bano’s maintenance claim.
He still remembers a huge rally that was held against the judgment in Indore and Mumbai.
After the verdict, Shah Bano got an invitation from Rajiv Gandhi. “He wanted to meet my mother and so I had accompanied my mother to Delhi.”
Recalling his meeting with Rajiv Gandhi, Jameel Ahmad said:
Talking about the Supreme Court’s verdict on Triple Talaq, he feels it will give Muslim women new life. Now they no longer have to live under the threat of instant divorce. Since more often than not, they are illiterate and face serious difficulties after divorce, the judgment will come as a measure of relief.
“The condition of Muslim women is appalling to say the least. They deserve a better deal,” he says.
Meanwhile, MA Khan and his second wife are no more, and his two sets of children have no contact or relations to speak of.
(The writer is former Editor, Somaiya Publications. He can be reached @VivekShukla108.)
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