Kani insists on need for law to stop lynching, honour killing

Participating in the discussion on the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2019, DMK leader Kanimozhi said that the bill would not send a right signal. The government should bring a “bill to stop honour killing as young men and women were beign killed. Everyday there is a report on this. What laws we are bringing to stop that,” she said. “We need to bring bill against mob lynching. That is the need of the hour,” she added.

The DMK member also said that the government should bring the women reservation bill. It is there in the election manifesto of the government. It is there second term and it has not been listed yet, she said.

Kanimozhi said, “we do not want men to tell us what is right for us”. She said that a BJP member talked about freedom, but the situation currently is that “we are not allowed what we want to eat”.

Describing the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill as “divisive” and “discriminatory”, she said re-promulgation of the law is a “fraud”.

“There are blatant deficiencies in this bill,” she said, asking how the issue has become criminal in nature, when it is a civil issue. There is a need to protect rights of men also because women’s rights include men’s rights also, she added.

“Why is the (the minister) concerned only about Muslim women and has no concern for Hindu and Christian women,” she asked.

She said while the government is supporting the Supreme Court’s minority judgement on bringing a law on triple talaq, the government is not supporting an apex court verdict on the Sabarimala temple issue.

“Why was the BJP silent on that and not opposed to it. Why should women be stopped from entering the Sabarimala Temple,” she asked.