Ishrat says orders of stitching, on which she lived, have dried up. (Express Photo by Partha Paul)
Ishrat Jehan, one of the petitioners against triple talaq in the Supreme Court, says her life has taken a turn for the worse since the verdict. She has become a pariah, she adds, in the Muslim-dominated Pilkhana area of Howrah she lives in, and is being pressured to leave. Sitting in a small, 12X7 ft, room on the fourth floor of a dingy building, the 30-year-old says she would manage by stitching clothes for those in the neighbourhood, and with the Rs 2,000-Rs 3,000 sent by her sisters every month. “Now no one comes to me. How will I sustain my family?” Two of her four children, Shayeshta (13) and Zaid (7), live with her, while the others are with her ex-husband in Bihar.
The room and a small attached kitchen are home to the three of them. She shares part of the fourth floor with the family of her ex-husband’s brother who, she claims, also wants her to leave. “They say I am divorced so why should I be staying here, where my husband used to stay.” After Ishrat wrote to the state and Central government seeking security, two night constables have been posted near her residence. On August 22, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court ruled the practice of instant triple talaq unconstitutional. Soon, as media came looking for Ishrat as one of the petitioners, news of her association with the order became public.
“When I walk down the road, my neighbours turn away. I hear they don’t want me to stay here, some question my character, some say I violated Sharia laws. On Eid, no one called to wish us, no one visited me. I only got a call from my mother in Bihar.” Ishrat says she got married to Murtaza Ansari in 2001, when she was just 14, in Bihar, where the two of them lived. Soon they shifted to Pilkhana. According to Ishrat, things were fine till she gave birth to a girl. While their next three children were sons, she adds, her relations with her husband never got better, and Ansari left her to work in Dubai. In April 2015, he allegedly called her up and said talaq thrice. He never spoke to her again, and remarried, she says.
Two of her children came to stay with her only recently. “I am yet to get them admitted in schools. How will I pay the fees?” Ishrat says. “These days I have to even buy drinking water, since the water pipes are contaminated during the rainy season.”
Recently, the 30-year-old had raised an alarm over her children going missing, filing a police complaint. Soon after, Shayesta and Zaid had turned up at the police station. Zabina Khatun, the wife of Ansari’s brother, denies Ishrat’s claims, calling her a liar and manipulator. “She wanted the talaq. As far as we know, her husband never gave her talaq. Her reputation is not good. She has gone against Sharia. The Supreme Court just listened to her plea but never heard us. She just wants money and the room she is living in,” says Zabina. Ishrat had earlier lodged a case against Zarina’s husband of molestation.
Zabina adds that while mediapersons, lawyers and NGOs have been coming to meet Ishrat and repeating her “lies”, “no one ever thought of speaking to us”. “All she ever brought to the family is shame.” Zabina, incidentally, has been attending pro-triple talaq seminars organised by state Library Minister Siddiqullah Chowdhury.
Shahroz Alam, the mufti of Kafur Galli Gausia mosque, located a stone’s throw from Ishrat’s house, admits the community is angry with her. “How can she file a court case against Sharia law? I don’t want to talk about these ‘evil’ things, but ask her neighbours… They will tell you she has a questionable reputation. People like her have led to this unnecessary controversy about triple talaq,” says Alam. “I have not violated the Sharia. I have only protested against talaq by messages and phone calls or instant talaq,” Ishrat counters. Now she plans to file a maintenance suit against her husband and to get his passport revoked.
Meanwhile, Ishrat is thankful for one thing. Zabina had got power to her room cut for not paying the bill. After the court order, Ansari’s brother restored the electricity.
