New Delhi, March 19: The All-India Shia Personal Law Board has proposed a model nikahnama — a marriage charter — which seeks to put Muslim women almost on a par with other Indian women in terms of rights.

The move by the highest body of Shias in the country comes against the backdrop of previous, but controversial, attempts to reform Muslim Personal Law in favour of women. Shias constitute 12 per cent of Muslims in India.

A key feature of the proposed nikahnama is that a divorced wife has the right to maintenance if she has no means of supporting herself. The maintenance should be paid by her former husband till she acquires a means of livelihood. At present, the maintenance period is limited to just three menstrual cycles.

The clause seems revolutionary when viewed in the context of the Shah Bano case. The Supreme Court had sought to put Muslim women on a par with other Indian women by granting them the same maintenance rights, angering Muslim clerics who accused the court of tampering with the Shariah and took to the streets. Not wanting to upset conservatives, the Rajiv Gandhi government passed the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act that ruled out equal maintenance rights to divorced Muslim women.

The nikahnama appears to take a different approach. It says it is far better to provide maintenance to the divorced wife than rendering her “helpless” to such an extent that she is forced “to beg from strangers”. However, it insists that this must not be construed as an “interference with the provisions of the Shariah” and that “this is based on humanitarian grounds”.

Yoginder Sikand, a scholar in Muslim theology, dubbed the nikahnama a revolutionary step. “It does not address all the demands of Muslim women activists. But it is a bold attempt to deal with some of the most pressing problems of Muslim women. That the initiative for this sort of effort has come from a section of the Ulemas (scholars), otherwise seen as a bastion of conservatism and patriarchy is, to say the least, heartening.”

The nikahnama gives the women the right to seek divorce if the husband disappears for two consecutive years and fails to provide for his wife. She has the same right if the husband uses force or mentally tortures her. She can also seek separate living arrangements if any of her husband’s relatives troubles her “excessively”.

The nikahnama, however, is silent on the husband’s prerogative of arbitrary divorce under the Muslim Personal Law. But it has tried a balancing act by making divorce more difficult for the husband than is the case now. It calls for the setting up of an arbitration committee, consisting of five members each from the wife and husband’s side. They may include witnesses to the marriage certificate and religious scholars.

The nikahnama, for the first time, says groom should divulge basic details. He must, for instance, declare if he has any other wife and/or children. He will also have to disclose his monthly income and educational qualifications and if any of these details are later proven wrong, the wife has the right to divorce.

The nikahnama also lists a groom’s rights and obligations, including promises to be made before marriage. One is that he will not force his prospective wife “to do anything in violation of the Shariah” or anything might cause her “embarrassment in society”. He will not “make any allegation’ without credible evidence.

He also has to promise never to demand gifts or money from the wife and/or her family after marriage, while agreeing to provide properly for her maintenance and that of their children, if any. He must also agree that he shall not stop his wife from working is she wants to do so to improve the family’s economic condition.