WhatsApp is indeed one of the most famous and highly preferred modes of communication. With features like sharing of multimedia, statuses, voice and video calling, communication has become a cake walk. On the flip side, issues arise when one starts using the platform to give 'Talaq' to their wives.
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Two women, natives of Hyderabad, have spoken up after their husbands gave them a divorce on WhatsApp by just sending them three words ''talaq, talaq, talaq." Mahreen Noor, 20, lodged a complaint with the Moghulpura police against her husband and in-law's after she received the message from her US-based husband.
Mahreen Noor, of Malakpet, got married to Usman Qureshi, 25, a senior analyst at Seven Heaven Medical Agency in 2015. According to the Times of India, Moghulpura inspector R Devender said, "Mahreen has been staying with her in-laws at Moghupura and in the last week of February, she received a WhatsApp message from Usman saying - Talaq Talaq Talaq. Subsequently in-laws shunted Mahreen out of their house and she lodged a complaint with us on February 27."
"The family members of Usman claimed that he had also sent talaq notice through email. But, Mahreen has not received any Talaq documents and the talaq over WhatsApp is not valid," added the inspector.
Her sister-in-law, Heena Fatima, who is married to Usman's elder brother, Syed Fayazuddin, went through a divorce in a similar manner six months ago.
Heena Fatima had lodged a complaint against her husband Fayazuddin and his parents six months back after he had sent her divorce papers from the US. "We have filed a chargesheet in the case. Her husband did not return to India and we have issued a Look Out Circular against him," Mirchowk sub-inspector, V Laxmaiah said.
The two women, who staged a protest outside their in-laws' house, tried to enter the house but were pushed out by their father-in-law Hafeez. Hafeez, his wife Atiya Khulsum and their daughter, Sabina Sultana have been booked under IPC section 498-a (subjecting a married woman to cruelty).
In fact, this is not the first time a Muslim man has taken the liberty to divorce his wife on WhatsApp. In October 2015, a Muslim man living in Dubai had divorced his 21-year-old wife in Kerala, just after 30 days of marriage by sending her a message on WhatsApp.
When the wronged Muslim woman filed a complaint with the Kerala Women's Commission's adalat in Pala, Kottayam, the validity of a WhatsApp divorce had taken the forefront. However, a member of the Samastha Kerala Jam-Iyyathul Ulama said that the talaq is valid.
But in another case of talaq over WhatsApp a completely different view was stated. According to a two-day old NDTV report, a Muslim woman in Delhi moved the court after she received a talaq message on WhatsApp.
As per the report, Abdul Hameed Noumani, a leader of the Islamic organisation Jamiat Ulema-I-Hind said: "Talaq through electronic means like WhatsApp is misuse. Several scholars are of the view that such people should be punished".
