Nikahnamas for Muslims

May I refer to some more drafts that have been used by Muslim men and women? Way back in the early 1930s, the All India Women’s Conference, under the presidentship of Begum Hamid Ali, had suggested inclusion of the rights of women in the nikahnama as mutually agreed by the marrying couple. Since the Muslim marriage is based on the principle of contract, it can be made as equitable as one likes.

Kamila Tyabji, who has been campaigning for this course and whose family has been following this practice, refers to an agreement drafted by a firm of solicitors included as an appendix in Fgzee’s “Outlines of the Mohamadan Law” as also to “a shorter and much dramatic version of the contract” drafted by Daniel Latiffi which bears the stamp of the chief Qazi of Aligarh. The latter had three provisions, first, equal position of husband and wife as regards divorce, second, ‘mehr’, half of which to be paid immediately and the rest to be deferred to death or divorce, and, third, no right for polygamy for the husband.