23, Sep 2015

Mohammad Ali
Meerut, September 23, 2015
Darul-Uloom-Deoband, the influential Islamic seminary on Tuesday, came out with something which would cheer many of those who find it in the news mostly for wrong reasons. The seminary declared that practice of ‘talaq’ (divorce) to wife because she gave birth to a baby girl is ‘illegal’ and ‘haraam’ (strictly prohibited by Islam).
The fatwa came in response to several instances, where the husband divorces his wife because she gave birth to baby girl. But the immediate trigger for this fatwa, was the instance in which a Muslim from Muzaffarnafgar who works in Riyadh, called up his wife in Muzaffarnagar and divorced her on phone just because she had recently given birth to his fourth child, a baby girl.
The matter went to the community panchayat which approved the ‘talaq’ after which somebody from Muzaffarnagar approached the seminary for its opinion on the issue. Fatwa means opinion and is technically not binding on the person who asks for it.
“It is not in the control of the woman to give birth to a baby boy or the baby girl. Moreover, a boy and a girl are equal for Islam. So, giving talaq to one’s wife just because she has given birth to a baby girl is completely unacceptable and haraam from the point of view of Islam,” said the spokesperson of the seminary, Ashraf Usmani.