Husbands missing, Valley’s invisible women count their years

Noted Islamic scholar and president of the Anjuman-e-Tableegul Islam Moulvi Qasim Shah Bukhari says that in Feqhai Hanfia (the Hanfia school of thought), women whose husbands are missing have to wait up to 90 years. However, in Feqhai Malikia, another school of thought, they have to wait for four years. Bukhari claims that Hanfia clerics have decided to adopt the Malikia’s more “reasonable” time frame. But the clergy is divided.

Moulvi Abbas Ansari, a Shia religious leader and member of separatist All Parties Hurriyat Conference, claims that as the situation prevailing in Kashmir was not normal, the sanction to allow remarriage after four years was not applicable. “The wife and relatives have to try their level best to ascertain the whereabouts of the missing person. And if he can’t be found, the marriage stands nullified after four years,” he said. “But since in the prevailing situation in Kashmir, it is very difficult to ascertain the whereabouts of a disappeared person especially if he has been picked up by security forces, there is a need to have a discourse on the issue.”

He cited the example of a local youth presumed dead by his parents after he was picked up by the security forces but was traced alive after seven years. “The doors of Ijtehad (to exert and reach an opinion pertaining to an issue which has no instance in the Islamic jurisprudence) are open,” he said and claimed he has already written to many noted religious scholars throughout the world regarding this issue. Ansari claims he has been approached by 15 such families.

Hameed Naseen Rafiabadi, Associate Professor, Department of Islamic Studies, Kashmir University, stresses upon the need to hold an immediate meeting of religious scholars and the clergy from different schools of thought to address this “grave” problem. He says that although there’s a difference in opinion, “a majority of Muslims now go by the Malikia school of thought which allows remarriage after four years of wait.”

Even the Government’s stand is confusing. Tariq Mahmood, Chairman, Minorities Commission, supports the four-year wait. `There is a Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939, later adopted by the J&K State in 1943, which clearly says that if the husband is missing for four years, the marriage stands dissolved,” he says. But Commissioner-Secretary, Law Department, J&K Government, however, denies this. “The time-frame for remarriage of such women varies as per the particular school of thought and there is no single law here. And it ranges from four to 90 years,” he said. “This is a religious matter and our department has no role to play.”

As the debate goes on, these innocent victims of circumstances continue to suffer. They can’t get the Rs 1 lakh ex-gratia relief provided to the widows of those killed in violence. They can’t claim help from the Social Welfare department; ironically, they do not even exist as beneficiaries in the Government-sponsored Rehabilitation Council for Militancy Victims.

Even if the religious leaders belonging to all schools of thought agree on the minimum four-year wait for their remarriage, there would still be no support system for these “half-widows” and their children.