New Delhi — India’s top court on Tuesday banned a controversial Islamic practice that allows men to divorce their wives instantly, ending a long tradition that many Muslim women had fiercely opposed. The Supreme Court ruled that the practice of "triple talaq", whereby Muslim men can divorce their wives by reciting the word talaq (divorce) three times, was both unconstitutional and un-Islamic. Victims including Shayara Bano, whose husband used triple talaq to divorce her in 2015, had approached India’s highest court to ask for a ruling. A panel of five male judges from India’s major faiths — Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism and Zoroastrianism — said triple talaq was "not integral to religious practice and violates constitutional morality". They said it was "manifestly arbitrary" to allow a man to "break down (a) marriage whimsically and capriciously". "What is sinful under religion cannot be valid under law," said the judges. Bano, who suffered a nervous breakdown after her div...
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