THE REFORMATIVE ROLE OF PERSONAL LAW AND JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS FOR UPGRADING THE MARITAL STATUS OF WOMEN UNDER ISLAMIC LAW IN INDIA AND ABROAD

Islam is perhaps the first religion which has given women the rightful place in the society of man, acknowledging her as a respectful entity and a personality unto herself due to Islamic reforms through the Quran and the authentic Hadith of the Prophet Muhammad between 610 and 632A.D. However, the situation has not last long, Muslim women are not considered a homogeneous group with their own vertical and horizontal divisions due to customary laws, the region and sect to which they belong, and the traditional school of Islamic jurisprudence. But, in contemporary Muslim countries, governments' desire for legal modernization, combined with the need to show respect for the Shariat (Islamic law), has resulted in several significant reforms. In the era of personal status, a number of reforms, by and large have been enacted in Muslim countries with a view to improving the status of women and empowering them in respect of their matrimonial rights. Subsequently, in India, the first major changes in Muslim law happened after the case of Shah Bano (1985) and Shayara Bano (2017) which respectively led to the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986 and The Muslim Women( Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019. This paper attempts to analyze how Muslim Personal law and judicial proceedings have been improving the marital status of women under Islamic law and empowered them in respect of their matrimonial rights in India and abroad