Marriage and its Discontents: Women, Islam and Law in India

This landmark book, while giving no quarter to undesirable practices like triple talaq, presents the author’s detailed findings on when, and how, Muslim women resort to legal remedies should their marriages break down. Her thought-provoking analysis is based on a decade of research in Chennai and Hyderabad, during which she consulted family court records and court petitions; conducted extensive interviews with government-appointed qazis in both cities; met and had detailed discussions with the women themselves, as well as with lawyers, judges, counsellors, court staff and advocates. She also examined, for the first time, the phenomenon of wife-initiated divorce or khula, and made the startling discovery that their number far exceeded court-awarded divorces in any given year.