New Delhi: On Thursday, one of the key petitioners in the triple talaq case, Ishrat Jahan tied a rakhi on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s wrist on the auspicious occasion of Raksha Bandhan.
Jahan tied a Tricolour rakhi on the PM’s wrist in Delhi, and said she was “delighted” to have got the opportunity.
Jahan told PTI, “I thanked the prime minister on behalf of all my Muslim sisters for his initiative to make the practice of instant triple talaq illegal. The PM, in his reply, said it was our right and we should be getting it.”
Jahan had moved the Supreme Court after her husband residing in Dubai divorced her in 2014 by uttering “Talaq” three times over the phone.
Modi’s ‘rakhi sister’, Qamar Mohsin Shaikh, a Pakistani National also tied the rakhi on his wrist and prayed for his good health. “I get the opportunity to tie rakhi to elder brother once every year, I’m happy. I pray that the next five years go so well for him that the whole world recognises the positive decisions he made,” she said.
The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2019 criminalises instant “triple talaq” among Muslims and attracts a jail term of three years for the husband.
Raksha Bandhan is a traditional Hindu festival celebrated in South Asia and in places influenced by Hindu culture. On this day sisters tie rakhi around the wrists of their brothers symbolically protecting them. It also represents the brother’s duty to protect his sister.
