Kozhikode: At the end of a two-and-a-half-hour seminar on Muslim Inheritance Law, organised by alumni of Islamic colleges, a man asked the panel of experts whether he can write a will distributing his wealth among his three daughters.
An expert said: "No. Since your daughters are legal heirs of your wealth, you cannot write a will with your daughters as beneficiaries".
The man persisted. "I have Rs 3 lakh and I have to give Rs 1 lakh each to my three daughters after I am gone. Can I do that?"
"No. You cannot. They are entitled to only two-thirds of your property."
According to the Muslim Law of Inheritance, wills can be written to distribute only up to one-third of a person's wealth, and the beneficiaries cannot be legal heirs.
Another man hesitantly and with much apologies posed another question. "There are two brothers. One rich and the other poor. When the poor brother dies, his children will not inherit anything from his father's estate. All will go to the rich brother and he is duty-bound to take care of the poor brother's children. But if the rich brother dies after inheriting his father's estate, will a portion of his wealth go to the poor brother's children?"
The expert says no. "No. The rich man's assets will go to his own children."
The man asked: "So where is the justice?"
Muslim Law of Inheritance is not a poverty alleviation programme, said another expert.
They were speaking at the seminar titled 'Inheritance law: Shariat, Law, Justice' organised by alumni of Islamic colleges for men (Wafy) in Kozhikode on Monday. Undergraduate courses for women are called Wafiyya.
It was the third public event in two days in Kozhikode city on Muslim Inheritance Law, triggered largely by CPM member and lawyer C Shukkur and his wife Sheena Shukkur, head of the Department of Law at Kannur University, registering their marriage under the Special Marriage Act of 1954 to overcome from the "discriminatory and humiliating" Muslim Law of Inheritance.
Wafy alumni invited Shukkur to speak at the seminar but he recused himself saying the panel had only men.
Speaking at the seminar Indian Union Muslim League secretary and former MLA K M Shaji said there was a political agenda behind the Shukkurs going public with their marriage under the Special Marriage Act (SMA).
He said many people were registering their marriage for the second time under the SMA if they had a problem dividing their property under the Muslim Law of Inheritance. "The lawyer could have done the same. But he made it big news. So the intention is not just to ensure his daughters get his property. There is a political motive behind it," he said.
One of the first persons to welcome Shukkur's marriage registration was BJP state general secretary M T Ramesh, he said.
People can follow any religion of their choice but believers cannot be cherry-picking religious laws according to their convenience, said Shaji. "That is not religion," he said.
There is a rule that females between the age of 10 and 50 years should not go to Sabarimala, he said. "Just follow the rules. Why to create trouble," he said.
He accused the government of being pseudo-progressive. "They teach atheism in schools but not religion. Atheism is also a belief system. Public money cannot be used to promote one type of belief," he said.
Adv Shukkur was a leader of the IUML till 2019 when he joined the CPM. "He became father to his three daughters when he was with the League. Back then, he did not have this insecurity about his property. And when they registered their marriage, there was one politician called Mustafa actively present there," he said referring to CPM leader V P P Mustafa.
"It was about cheap politics and seeking cheap popularity," said Shaji.
On Sunday, Forum for Muslim Women's Gender Justice organised an event calling for an amendment to the Muslim Law of Inheritance. "They have come to that (gender justice) from gender equality. I have always been saying gender justice is the right thing, not gender equality. Now, the matter is the only inheritance of property. They will come around that too," he said.
If there is injustice against women, they will speak up, he said.
To be sure, Forum for Muslim Women's Gender Justice is a collective of women who are speaking up against the inheritance law.
Speaking before Shaji, social critic Hameed Chennamangaloor called for changes in the Inheritance law to keep up with the time. "But we are here to talk of a law that affects women and there is not one woman on the dais," he said.
There were hardly a few in the audience.
But the organisers dismissed Hameed's concerns with dry humour.
Speaking at the end of the seminar, Ahmed Faizy, secretary of Coordination of Islamic Colleges, said: "The talk of women not being on the stage itself stems from discriminatory mindset. Can men only talk about men and women about women? If that is the case, the government would struggle to set up the Department of Animal Husbandry".
The jam-packed hall burst out laughing and clapping. And the seminar concluded.
