Yami Gautam’s Haq: For Shah Bano, it was ‘izzat ki ladayi,’ says son; she was ‘ashamed’ of ‘being divorced’, lived in ‘terror’ protesters will destroy their house

‘Shah Bano was gravely wronged’

In a 2011 chat with Hindustan Times, Jameel said that his mother was “gravely wronged.” Describing his late mother as a “simple, purdah-observing woman,” he said, “Being divorced at such a late age, the publicity, paper-baazi… She was very ashamed of all this. She didn’t say much but kept stewing over it,” he said and recalled how these events took a toll on her health. “She developed high blood pressure and frequently fell ill,” he said. Shah Bano died in 1992 from a brain haemorrhage. Jameel said that this was a “family matter”, but also a matter of “self-respect.” “Izzat ki ladayi thi (It was a fight for self-respect). It was a fight against our izzat being maligned in the locality and a family matter,” he said.

What was the Shah Bano case?

Mohd Ahmed Khan married his second wife 14 years after his marriage to Shah Bano. For many years, the two wives and their children lived together. It was then that Ahmed asked Shah Bano to leave with her children. He divorced her in 1978 after 48 years of marriage. Shah Bano claimed monetary maintenance under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1973. Her husband contested the petition under Muslim personal law, claiming he provided maintenance during the period of iddat — the waiting period of three months after divorce when a woman is not allowed to remarry. He added he has paid her the deferred mahr or dower and had no further obligation. He was ordered to pay a nominal Rs 25 per month to his wife by a local court, which was later increased to Rs 179.20 per month by the Madhya Pradesh High Court. This decision was upheld by the Supreme Court. This led to debate in India over the rights of women, minority rights and the need for a Uniform Civil Code (UCC).

Shah Bano’s son says they lived in terror

Jameel shared that after his father asked his mother to leave, he stopped visiting the family. “It came to a pass where he’d only come on Eid, and even then my chhoti vaalida (stepmother) would send for him even before we could serve sevaiyan,” he said and recalled that it was during one such Eid where he and his brothers visited their father, but this visit made things worse. He recalled, “Around two years after my mother had moved out, my brothers and I went to meet my father on Eid and asked him to forgive and forget. But he slapped me and threw us all out.” It was after this that Shah Bano decided to approach the court for maintenance.

ALSO READ | 2001 was the year when Lagaan, Gadar, Dil Chahta Hai became speedily iconic: 25 Years of Indian Cinema

Jameel shared that as the case started getting national importance, it made their life even more difficult. With protests happening in many major cities of the country, they were under “terror” and felt that their house could collapse if the protestors turned violent. “Massive processions against the judgment were staged across the country. In Mumbai, traffic was held up for hours. Even in Indore there was a lakh-strong rally which passed in front of our house. Even if every rallyist threw a pebble each, our kachha house would have crumbled. This creates terror,” he said.

Director Suparn S Varma, in a chat with Rediff, said that the case of Shah Bano became his inspiration for Haq. “If I was making a biopic, I would have met the family. Here, I was inspired by the Shah Bano judgment and the judgments of Tahira Bi and Fazlun Bi, which were the precedents for the Shah Bano judgment. But it’s not a film on Shah Bano,” he said.