In Bihar, A Man Leaves Wife For Participating In India’s Independence Day Celebration

As we celebrated our 67th Independence Day, a stark reality came to light that women in some parts of the country still don’t have the freedom to even participate in the country’s Independence Day function. As rapes, insensitive remarks by different leaders and crimes against women go on rampantly, women in India are still under the shackles even after so many years of independence.

A recent event testifies the same: A Muslim school teacher in Begusarai district of Bihar has been evicted from her house for participating in an Independence Day celebration. Her husband believes that she had violated the Shariat law by attending the function.

Nazia Khatoon, a government teacher in a middle school in Begusarai, was forced to leave her house along with her two children. She has now approached the superintendent of police to seek justice. She told the police that she was married in 2003 and alleged that her husband used to torment her for dowry.

"My husband has been threatening me to leave my school teacher job or he will desert me. He forced me to leave my house after I attended the Independence Day function," she said.

Muslim scholars have denounced the incident and said that Umar Khan was misusing the Shariat law to get rid of his wife.

The Muslim population in Bihar is about 1.6 crore, which is 16.5% of the state’s total population. Their nationwide population is about 17.7 crore, which comes to about 14.6% of the country’s entire population.

Incidents like these really necessitate that we pause and think whether we are actually moving towards women empowerment.
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