Trauma beneath the burqa

Sunni Muslim women seek ban on polygamy Representational image | Pic: PTI Mumbai : A landmark survey among Sunni Muslim women living in polygamous marriages has exposed a deep and dark pattern of emotional, economical and social injustice besides severe health constraints, all of which combine to arrest the progress of the community, especially among the economically weaker sections. Conducted between July-November by Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, the alarming study of 2,508 Sunni Muslim...

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Sunni Muslim women seek ban on polygamy Representational image | Pic: PTI Mumbai : A landmark survey among Sunni Muslim women living in polygamous marriages has exposed a deep and dark pattern of emotional, economical and social injustice besides severe health constraints, all of which combine to arrest the progress of the community, especially among the economically weaker sections. Conducted between July-November by Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, the alarming study of 2,508 Sunni Muslim women in 7 states found that polygamy was more widespread than earlier believed, said BMMA co-founders Zakia Soman and Noorjehan Niaz. Present were Indian Muslims for Secular Democracy (IMSD) activists like Javed Anand, Feroze Mithiborwala and some victims of polygamy. Of the 2,508 veiled respondents, a shocking 87 pc (2,188) said that their husbands had 2 wives, 10 pc (259) reported husbands with 3 wives, and the remaining 3 pc (61) revealed their husbands had 4 or more wives. Signalling a historic shift on the perceived ills of polygamy, 87 pc of all the women demanded the application of IPC 494/BNSS 86 on polygamous Sunni Muslim men and 86 pc want full codification of Muslim Personal Law with legal protection, transparency and accountability, said Soman and Niaz. The eye-opener survey found that the first and second wives in such marriages were aged between 31-50, and 59 pc had only secondary school education, with accompanying acute financial insecurity. 65 pc of the first wives earned less than Rs 5000/month, the rest had no income, and the second wives’ economic conditions were even worse. The situation of the first wives was pitiable from the time of marriage - 84 pc of them had no income, and later, 79 pc of all the women had nil income, 61 pc first wife and 32 pc second wife never received ‘Mehr’, and those who did, the amounts were as piddly as Rs 786 (30 pc) and around Rs 5,000 (43 pc). Against this, 32 pc of the first wives coughed out dowry (between Rs 50,000-Rs 200,000), though the incidence of dowry was much lesser among the second wives, with the polygamy plague affecting an estimated 20 pc of the Sunni Muslims community, who comprise around 88 pc of the total Islam followers in India. Though 97 pc of the BMMA surveyed women admitted that the formal consent (‘Qubool Hai’) for marriage was taken by the Qazi, 83 pc never read their ‘Nikaah-nama’ (marriage certificate) and 38 pc had no idea of the crucial document that was held by their husbands/relatives. They further revealed that at the time of ‘Nikaah’, a staggering 60 pc of the men were educated till Class X or less, 66 pc earned meagre (below Rs 20,000/month), and while first wives were usually saddled with lower-income families, the second wives hitched onto men who were more stable financially, said the BMMA study. With families crumbling, 47 pc first wives returned to their parents’ homes but depended on them or charity for survival as 40 pc of all women received no maintenance and 5 pc got less than Rs 2000/month. The second wives also didn’t fare better – 29 pc faced desertion as husbands rejoined the first wife - though a total 89 pc of all Sunni Muslim women confirmed that the scourge of ‘Triple Talaq’ has declined, indicating that legal reform can help transform lives. “The study unequivocally concludes that polygamy causes profound emotional trauma, economic deprivation and psychological harm, kids suffer, religion is misused to justify injustice while the Islamic tenets of justice, compassion and fairness are discarded,” said the BMMA leaders. Polygamous ‘cloak-and-dagger’ kills families Usually, secrecy shrouds second weddings - 88 pc of the first wives rued their permission was not sought, and 85 percent were never even informed by the husband. On the other hand, 68 pc of second wives were aware of the first wife, but the remaining (32 pc) were tricked into marriage. The husbands’ patriarchal arguments for a second wife included – 31 pc claiming to ‘love’ some other woman, 30 pc justifying it as an Islamic religious right, infertility, for begetting a son or family pressures, while 17 pc cited no reasons at all for repeat matrimony – and 13 pc men resorted to plain deception to lure their second wives, claiming either divorce, desertion or death by the first wife. Not surprisingly, an overwhelming majority of the Sunni Muslim women trapped in polygamy want the practice legally banned, and even in the purported ‘exceptions’ (infertility, terminal illness or incompatibility), most abhor re-marriage as the solution, the BMMA survey revealed.

The Summit Without America

Kiran D. Tare
4 hours ago
4 min read

Trump’s G20 boycott handed Narendra Modi an unlikely spotlight while showing that the world’s biggest economies can still act even when Washington sulks.

When the United States absents itself from global diplomacy, the usual assumption is that the world grinds to a halt. The recently concluded twentieth G20 summit in Johannesburg, boycotted by President Donald Trump and the US over allegations that South Africa was persecuting its white Afrikaner minority, offered a rare counterexample. Far from paralysis, the gathering produced an energetic display of geopolitical improvisation. Deals were struck and initiatives were launched. Into the vacuum left by the US, stepped Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who turned the American absence into Indian advantage.

Trump’s boycott had dominated the chatter in the run-up to the summit. For some, it confirmed Washington’s drift into a new era of truculent unilateralism. For others, it presented an opportunity. “We will mark them absent and continue with the business,” Ronald Lamola, South Africa’s foreign minister had remarked, setting a tone of quiet defiance.

Even a request by the Trump administration to stage a ceremonial handover of the G20 presidency from Cyril Ramaphosa to a junior American diplomat was politely declined. If Washington wished to skip the meeting, the signal was clear: the G20 would not rearrange itself around U.S. theatrics.

Coasting Without America

That determination shaped the rhythm of the summit. Ramaphosa opened by breaking precedent, adopting the final declaration at the outset in a diplomatic flourish meant to show unity and momentum. With America absent, emerging powers found space both to deepen cooperation and to push agendas reflecting the concerns of the Global South.

No leader capitalised on this dynamic more deftly than India’s prime minister. Modi arrived in Johannesburg with a clear plan and used the forum to project India as a convening power capable of bridging divides, advancing practical solutions, and amplifying the voice of the developing world. It was the strongest echo yet of India’s ambition, articulated during its 2023 presidency, to transform the G20 from a club of economic heavyweights into a platform for inclusive global governance.

Fruitful Interventions

Modi’s interventions were broad and unusually purposeful. On the artificial intelligence (AI) front, an area where the Trump administration has resisted any move toward international regulation, he urged the creation of a global governance framework to prevent misuse, insisting that AI must be deployed for the global good rather than for narrow geopolitical advantage.

Modi’s stance, in stark variance to the one adopted by Trump, was that technological disruption, if left unregulated, risks entrenching global inequality and destabilising less prepared societies.

On security, Modi focused attention on the insidious frontier of global drug trafficking. His proposal for a ‘G20 Initiative on Countering the Drug-Terror Nexus’ gained notable support, illustrating how synthetic narcotics, long viewed as domestic policing issues, have grown into transnational threats with geopolitical implications.

The PM’s most striking emphasis was on Africa, a continent where India’s ties run deep but which rarely features so prominently in global summits. Building on the legacy of the New Delhi G20, where India championed the African Union’s entry as a full member, Modi cast Africa’s rise as central to the future of global development. He spoke of the need to rethink growth models that have historically deprived large populations of resources and encouraged the over-exploitation of nature, arguing that Africa has been among the worst sufferers of these distortions.

Modi proposed an ambitious skills partnership with the continent, calling for a G20–Africa ‘Skills Multiplier’ that would train one million certified trainers over the next decade through a train-the-trainer model capable of cascading expertise to millions more. He also urged the creation of a Global Traditional Knowledge Repository, inspired by India’s Indian Knowledge Systems programme, to preserve and exchange eco-balanced, sustainable practices maintained by communities worldwide.

These ideas reflected India’s philosophy of ‘Integral Humanism,’ which sees economic progress, environmental stewardship and societal well-being as interlinked rather than competing objectives. For Africa, a continent simultaneously endowed with resources and scarred by historical patterns of exploitation, the appeal of such a holistic development model is evident.

India’s influence extended into the final declaration as well. The strong language condemning terrorism clearly bore the marks of India’s imprint. So too did emphasis on digital public infrastructure, women-led development, disaster resilience, traditional medicine and the responsible governance of emerging technologies. The declaration also echoed India’s call for broader representation in global institutions, including long-pending UN Security Council reforms.

Bilateral diplomacy thrived on the sidelines as Modi held consultations with leaders ranging from the UK and Italy to South Korea and Singapore. Most notably, India, Australia and Canada unveiled the new Australia-Canada-India Technology and Innovation (ACITI) Partnership to strengthen supply chains, accelerate green energy innovation and coordinate AI policy.

All of this unfolded even as the symbolic rituals of global leadership stumbled. When Ramaphosa struck the traditional wooden gavel to close the summit, no American official was present to receive it for the 2026 presidency.

The scene demonstrated that multilateralism need not collapse when America withdraws. In fact, it may encourage others to step up. Modi’s activism, Ramaphosa’s assertiveness and the willingness of middle powers to forge new alliances all point to a slow but discernible redistribution of diplomatic agency. The world may still not be ready to move on without the United States, but it is learning to move on when necessary.

In a century likely to be defined not by a single hegemon but by a constellation of influential states, the real takeaway of the Johannesburg summit is that global cooperation is no longer a function of American attendance.