Very feeble reform

The model nikahnama proposed by the Muslim Personal Law Board is, at best, a very modest step forward in the reform of Muslim personal law. ...

The model nikahnama proposed by the Muslim Personal Law Board is, at best, a very modest step forward in the reform of Muslim personal law. While it gives women more protection when it comes to protecting their property and maintenance, it is silent on crucial issues such as age of marriage and the triple talaq. It has taken almost ten years to produce this document. There was great external and internal pressure for reform. The leadership of the Muslim community has relentlessly been accused of keeping the community backward. And, in recent years, sections within the Muslim community, especially among women, have become more vocal in demanding reform. At the present political conjuncture, reform from the outside, except through incremental case law, has been considered unfeasible. It was therefore even more important that the Muslim Personal Law Board showed some initiative in ushering in credible reforms.

Judged by this ambition, the new nikahnama is a colossal failure. The reforms that it proposes would have been radical 50 years ago. In 2005, they are simply a reminder of how much the Muslim Personal Law Board is behind the times. No one expects the Muslim Personal Law Board to doubt the authority of the shariat. But it could be reasonably expected that it would come up with an interpretation of the shariat8217;s message that protects women8217;s rights more strongly and brings the institution of marriage more in line with modern realities. Any process of reform has two aspects: the substantive laws enacted and the process by which reforms are carried out. While the Muslim Personal Law Board was more solicitous of a range of opinions than in the past, there are a number of questions about its representative character. Even for those who take the position that each community must be free to reform its personal laws at its own pace, the question of the Muslim Personal Law Board8217;s representative status remains troubling. Whose views does it represent? How does it ascertain the will of the community? Why should its interpretation of the shariat be solely authoritative? Real reform will have to involve not just incremental changes in the substance of the laws, but the whole process by which these laws acquire their authority. This protracted and feeble attempt at reform will only make these questions more, rather than less, insistent.

The proposed nikahnama should not result in the Muslim Personal Law Board putting the debate over reform of personal law into cold storage. On the contrary, it should persuade Muslims to debate their laws even further. The objective of having a state where marriage laws are independent of religious affiliation, and fully affirm the fullest equality, is still a distant dream. But, in the meantime, the custodians of religious authority would do better than to come up with half-baked reform measures that are possibly out of tune with the needs and aspirations of their communities.