Two days after the model nikahnama was approved by the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) in Bhopal, the All India Muslim Women’s Personal Law Board rejected the draft and decided to formulate its own version of it with legal checks against triple talaq. President of the Muslim Women’s Law Board Shaista Ambar told The Indian Express that their nikahnama would have legal safeguards for Muslim women in the light of Quran and shariat. Ambar said she would also seek the sanction of the Supreme Court in making divorce difficult. ‘‘Aaj kal nikah mushkil ho gaya hai, aur talaq lena aasan (It is difficult to marry these days but easy to get a divorce),’’ she said. Describing the model nikahnama as a ‘‘dua ki kitab (prayer book)’’, Ambar said the AIMPLB has just completed a formality and the new draft was just a jugglery of phrases. ‘‘The rights of women have not been elaborated in the model nikahnama,’’ she said. When contacted, AIMPLB vice-chairman Maulana Kalbe Sadiq said the focal point of Islam was justice and fairplay and denied that injustice has been done to Muslim women. Moreover, the Maulana said the model nikahnama was just a draft and not obligatory on the Muslims. The legal convenor of the law board, Zafaryab Jilani, said the model was an important document which contained several checks and balances in a bid to discourage triple talaq. Burqa controversy in Bengal school BERHAMPORE: A controversy has erupted over a high school teacher, a recent convert to Islam, wearing a burqa over her attire in protest against the school authorities insistence on her wearing a sari like her colleagues. Sushmita Mondal, now Sumaiya Parveen, a teacher of Anandamani Girls’ High School at Amtala in Murshidabad district had refused to abide by the school authorities direction that she wear sari as per the school tradition. Parveen, a masters degree holder in English who embraced Islam after her marriage to a Muslim teacher, is understood to have worn some dress other than the sari to the school to which the authorities did not agree. Then as a mark of protest she wore sari but chose to cover it with burqa. The school officials said today that a meeting has been called to discuss the issue. “We have only asked her to wear saris as other teachers do.” School Education Minister Kanti Biswas said in Kolkata that he had heard of the controversy, but the state government would not interfere. “The government expects teachers to dress with taste and decency. But we can’t make a rule as in the present case,” Biswas said. —PTI
