SRINAGAR: A group of Islamic scholars in Kashmir has issued a fatwa (decree) that a half-widow can remarry four years after the disappearance of her husband.
A huge number of women in Jammu and Kashmir have been living as half-widows due to the disappearance of their husbands in custody of the Indian security forces.
The religious scholars were in Srinagar for a conference on the issue of the remarriage of Kashmiri Fatwa Issued women whose husbands have gone missing over the past two decades since the outbreak of militancy in the state.
Bashir Ahmad Dar, head of Ehsaas, the NGO that organized the conference, said the religious scholars unanimously concluded that the half-widows' whose husbands have disappeared in custody or otherwise over the past 20 years can remarry four years after the disappearance.
Human rights groups say the number of people who have so disappeared in the past twenty years of armed resistance against Indian rule is more than eight thousand. One fourth of them were married.
In all such cases the security forces deny any knowledge about the whereabouts of these men.
Their wives are known as half-widows because they don't know whether their husbands are alive or dead. As such these women cannot decide whether to remarry or whether to wait for their missing me to return.
The Islamic scholars held three rounds of consultations over the issue and before issuing the fatwa.
A huge number of women in Jammu and Kashmir have been living as half-widows due to the disappearance of their husbands in custody of the Indian security forces.
The religious scholars were in Srinagar for a conference on the issue of the remarriage of Kashmiri Fatwa Issued women whose husbands have gone missing over the past two decades since the outbreak of militancy in the state.
Bashir Ahmad Dar, head of Ehsaas, the NGO that organized the conference, said the religious scholars unanimously concluded that the half-widows' whose husbands have disappeared in custody or otherwise over the past 20 years can remarry four years after the disappearance.
Human rights groups say the number of people who have so disappeared in the past twenty years of armed resistance against Indian rule is more than eight thousand. One fourth of them were married.
In all such cases the security forces deny any knowledge about the whereabouts of these men.
Their wives are known as half-widows because they don't know whether their husbands are alive or dead. As such these women cannot decide whether to remarry or whether to wait for their missing me to return.
The Islamic scholars held three rounds of consultations over the issue and before issuing the fatwa.
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