Divorce, Divorce, Divorce Spoilers

You're upset. You've been in a long marriage with someone you once fell in love with but don't anymore. A fight ensues, one of the many that plague your day to day. Except this time it's different. This time, your husband, once the love of your life, utters: "Talaq, talaq, talaq."

In 1980, Shazia Bano faced a similar situation when her husband, Mohammed Ahmed Khan, brought back a second wife. After a series of escalating conflicts, Shazia chose to leave with her children, whereupon her husband stopped paying her child support (nafqa). In her attempt to get him to pay, Mohammed used the "triple talaq" (the islamic divorce) to repeal any relation, and therefore obligation, owed to his previous family. Thus began a decade-long series of legal battles between husband and wife, which disentangled and critiqued the role of religion in law, and asked who is truly protected.

Haven't heard of Shazia Bano? Well, go check out Haq, which is out now on Netflix. Based on the Shah Bano Case (1985), the film explores how religious and secular law fails to safeguard women.

You go home with your head down. What meagre amount your husband was initially paying has stopped and your family is struggling. You take your complaints to court. You plead your case but you don't really know what you're doing. The issue is that your husband is a renowned lawyer himself; no one wants to take this case. Just before despair can overtake you, someone steps up.

Your conditions are simple. You want alimony. You want justice.

As the case unravels, Haq demonstrates just how easily religion and law can be warped and weaponized against vulnerable parties. Mohammed Ahmed Khan not only exploits the triple talaq and sharia law to absolve himself of any accountability, but he attempts to use religion in the court of law as a way to undermine the legitimacy of Shazia's struggles.

Standing up for her rights suddenly feels outlandish; demanding protection under the jurisdiction of law feels nearly impossible. When you watch the movie, frustration and claustrophobia grips you in its chokehold because no matter how many times Shazia lays out the facts, no matter how many times she asks for empathy, for some kind of understanding, there is no forgiveness that anyone can offer her. Only technicalities and fallacies. Yet, still, she stays resolute. She fights back.

What makes Shazia Bano's situation so complicated is the fact that it falls under both secular and religious law. Under Islamic law, Mohammed is technically allowed to have a second wife– he can have up to four under the condition that he is able to provide each wife with housing, financial support, etc. What is illegal is getting married again without the first wife's consent, and then also failing to provide his first wife the support she needs, and then not only coercing her out of the house but also refusing to give her maintenance rights (all of which he did).

Still, Shazia endures it.

Honestly, when I was watching this movie, I felt nothing but indignation on behalf of Shazia. In my eyes, it was so clear who was wrong. Shazia wasn't even asking for much. After all the trauma he put her through, all she wanted was basically child support. There's even this line where she talks about how this fight wasn't even about her anymore; it was about all women, about the women who've gone through this and didn't have the privilege or means to stand up for themselves. It was about women's right to dignity.

Wow, wow, wow! That is such a powerful sentiment. It sent chills down my body. In all of the mess that became of their disagreement, one of the major rhetoric that Shazia faced was about her audacity. It was her fault that this conversation was coming to light. It was her fault that Mohammed's name was being dragged. Then, for her to come up and ask the simple question as to why women weren't entitled to dignity? Oh my god, like yes! Go queen! Point out the double standards! My goodness, and she does exactly that.

What is supposed to be a debate as to whether a first wife is entitled to child support shifts quickly into one about how women are perceived under both laws (Muslim personal law and India's secular laws). She points fingers. She calls out what's wrong with the system. She literally close reads the law and schools the community as to how it's being misinterpreted.

Now, hearing that legally under Islamic law, a man is allowed to marry up to four wives, was not a shock to me. I grew up learning about it, seeing it happen in Pakistani dramas, and although it never personally sat right with me, I understood there was a whole cultural and religious component to it that I did not have background knowledge to speak about. What I really admired about Haq was that it never condemned Islam as a whole; instead, the movie asked us to partake in thinking about how law and religion have been interpreted and used.

Like, seriously, all it's asking you to do is critically think. Just like Shazia Bano is doing. We, as the viewers, get to see who is threatened by this change (ugh, men) and how they retaliate. We get to understand how complicated the conversation becomes when you have two distinct sets of laws and how easily it can displace individuals.

Shazia is a religious person. She grew up with a father who was an maulvi. From a very young age, she'd read the Quran and knew it like the back of her hand. This is what put her in the unique position of being able to pull out laws that were being used against her and drawing out the faulty logic in them. She wasn't pointing fingers at her faith. Instead, she was just showing how problematic it was using faith as a separate legal institute. There were gaps in the system that had been created, ones that needed to be questioned and resolved.

It's also an important piece in the narrative that Shazia's father is an maulvi or teacher of Islam. It's something that the film emphasizes; Shazia's father stood up for her, stood by her, and even encouraged her to keep going despite the endless obstacles in her path. Religion connected her to her father and to her empowerment. In fact, the whole legal battle connected her even more to her religious faith.

Her family was ostracized, attacked, and insulted, and still, her father stood steadfast in his convictions. They endured. Their faith enabled them to do so.

"Iqra," utters Bano, and it is true. Read. Understand. Comprehend.

There is a bit of controversy surrounding the film. According to Google, this story was shared without Shazia Bano's family's consent, and there were some huge creative licensing choices that the film took when adapting her story. A few key differences are that Shazia Bano, Mohammed, and the second wife, Halima Begum, were all cousins; Shazia had five kids with Mohammed, instead of the three depicted in the movie; Shazia's father was actually a police constable; Shazia was in her sixties when the legal battles began; and, Mohammed kicked Shazia out of the house (in the movie they depicted that Shazia chose to leave).

Is it important to be aware of these changes? Yes, probably.

Does it mean that Haq isn't good? Not at all.

I think watching Haq provides a good foundation to learn about the conversations that were taking place in courts during that time. It showcases just how courageous it was for women like Shazia Bano to stand up for themselves, and how much the law worked against them. It opens discussion on the topic of marriage and divorce, and how the overlapping of religious and secular law presented ways for people with considerable power over their wives to take advantage of it. Most importantly, it highlights a figure in Indian history who paved a path for women.

As for creative licensing, I don't think Haq ever posed to be anything but an adaptation. It did a great job in making me curious enough to go research Bano's case. I learned so much about sharia law, Muslim personal law, and how these jurisdictions mapped India's political landscape. I wouldn't have known that after years and years of hardwork, the triple talaq became illegal in 2019! I mean, seriously, it took that long for it to be put into motion. Without this movie, Bano's story would never have even made my radar.

So, go watch it. Learn about what happened to Shazia Bano and then go do your own research.

Or... just don't get married.

Links:

https://www.indiatoday.in/information/story/what-was-the-shah-bano-case-how-netflixs-haq-differs-from-real-life-2851097-2026-01-13

https://www.cnbctv18.com/india/the-real-story-behind-haq-the-woman-who-took-on-the-system-shah-bano-19745403.htm

https://zeenews.india.com/photos/entertainment/who-was-shah-bano-begum-the-woman-whose-rs-200-maintenance-battle-changed-indian-law-the-true-story-behind-haq-2980368/shah-bano-s-family-moves-court-against-makers-of-haq-2980369

https://www.bollywoodshaadis.com/articles/is-haq-real-life-shazia-bano-husband-mohammed-ahmed-khan-alive-here-what-we-know-73193