Why blame the Shariat?

Gudiya’s life was thrown out of gear when the first husband returned and she had to make her choice. The law gives her the right to leave her husband and forego her alimony (mehr) and then marry whomever she desires. It’s an unenvious case of her having two husbands at a time she could have exercised her right to leave one. Given the tragic circumstances of the case it would have been a difficult choice but the Muslim law did not come in the way of the exercise of that choice. The only issue was to show some guts and speak for herself. Instead she relinquishes her decision-making power to family and panchayat. Family honour, money, village honour get involved in what should have been a personal decision. Gudiya emerges as a hapless victim in a drama where she allows others to take control of her life.

If there is anyone to blame for the mess it’s the Indian army and the then defence minister, George Fernandes. How was an Indian POW declared a “deserter” in the first place? For five long years the army was content with this view. In the 21st century with highly computerised data and bilateral treaties between India and Pakistan surely there are better ways to figure out the dead, the deserter and the prisoner categories of our jawans? And after committing the grave lapse the army has the audacity to order Arif to not be a player in the “medieval” drama played out in full public view. Who scripted this “medieval drama” in the first place? Surely something needs to be said about their “medieval” data base system. Isn’t being declared a deserter by one’s own parent army the ultimate insult for a serviceman? Does the serviceman have the right to sue the army for a lapse that turns his world upside down? Is a hero’s welcome for the deserter turned POWs enough for the army to absolve itself of its lapses? In other words it is the army laws and not the Muslim Personal law that need to be scrutinised if we want to ensure no other woman has to make a difficult choice like Gudiya.