Supreme Court
NEW DELHI: More than 20 years after her marriage, Rousanara Begum finally heard the words she had waited for when the Supreme Court recently ruled that a divorced Muslim woman can reclaim the wedding gifts her parents gave her at the time of marriage.Now nearly 45, she told TOI on Saturday: “It started two decades ago. I had to fight a lot for the victory.” For her, the SC’s decision is not just a legal victory. It is the closing of a wound she has carried since 2005. Rousanara was barely married when her marital life collapsed. According to her case records, she was married in 2005 but the relationship fell apart almost immediately.By late 2005, the first cracks had appeared. In 2008, after allegations of dowry harassment, mental cruelty, and being forced out of her marital home, she returned to her parents. The talaq eventually came in 2011. The gifts her father had given — 7 lakh rupees in cash and some gold that were part of her wedding — were never returned to her. “(Rs) Seven lakh is a lot of money for folks like us,” she said in broken Urdu.Unlike many families who fear the social judgement that comes with a daughter’s divorce, her parents stood rock-solid behind her. However, despite winning in the lower courts more than once, Rousanara’s fight ran into a wall at Calcutta HC, which in Jan 2024 reversed the earlier orders and denied her the right to reclaim the cash and gold her parents had given when she married. HC ruled in favour of the divorced husband, SK Salahuddin. This prompted Rousanara to move the SC.Through the years of litigation, Rousanara rebuilt her life even as she walked in and out of courtrooms. Today she works as a primary school teacher in a govt school, is remarried, and has two sons.For her lawyer, Syed Mehdi Imam, it is one of the most meaningful victories he has seen. “This was a grey area. Till today, no clear judgment existed on whether the money and gold given to a bride at marriage, but kept with the groom, must be returned after divorce,” he told TOI. “I urged the court: decide this once and for all.” Imam said there was hesitation in some quarters because the matter could have been misread as a religious flashpoint. “There could potentially have been pushback from some corners,” he said. “Some feared it could flare into a religious controversy since this issue had never been adjudicated before. It could have blown out of proportion as it was sensitive.” Then, finally on Dec 2, SC placed equality and dignity at the heart of its interpretation of the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, observing that law must be read in light of the lived experiences of women, especially in rural and small-town India, where patriarchal discrimination remains embedded.Muslim bodies have welcomed the ruling. Maulana Raziul Islam Nadwi, national secretary of JIH and its Shari’ah Council, said, “Husband’s gifts to the wife, even if the marriage does not last, cannot be taken back under Islamic law. Women’s gifts have a different status. Shari’at gives the wife this right, unless she or her family willingly relinquishes it. There is no contradiction in the SC order.” When the verdict came, Imam typed three words to her during the court lunch break: “Won the matter.” That night, his phone rang. She was in tears. “I am very happy,” she said. “This win is for all Muslim women like me.” For many divorced Muslim women across India, this case from rural Bengal is a precedent: one that finally clarifies that what is given to a bride at marriage belongs to her alone. Go to Source
