Mira Serhal

 

University / Organisation : CY Cergy Paris Université and ESSEC Business School

Paper or project ? project

Title : The Effect of Banning Instant Triple Divorce on Muslim Women : Evidence from the Triple Talaq Law in India

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Abstract : This paper aims to investigate whether divorce laws affect domestic violence in the context of a developing country. Exploiting the 2019 instant triple talaq law (ITT act) in India, we estimate the effect of imposing greater difficulty in divorce proceedings for men on women's perceptions of and actual experiences with domestic violence. The ITT act, enacted on 30th July 2019, declared the practice of triple talaq as illegal and unconstitutional and specified that any husband who practices instant triple talaq can face up to three years of imprisonment. To the best of our knowledge, our paper is one of the first large scale study investigating the instant triple talaq law. Data from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and a difference-in-differences strategy are employed to assess the impact of the law. We also seek to elucidate the potential mechanisms that underlie the association between the reform and domestic violence, specifically examining factors related to women's empowerment such as bargaining power, autonomy, and labor force participation. Moreover, we aim to explore whether the effects of the law are different in contexts where the political representation of Muslim differs, where their minority status is more or less salient, where religious leaders are more or less powerful. We also intend to examine whether the impact of the law depends on the 2019 electoral results, notably those obtained by nationalist candidates, and on the ethnic fractionalization of the district. Furthermore, we plan to look at whether media exposure at the local level modifies the impact of the law. Debates and discussion related to the triple talaq may have varied across states, and if feasible it could be interesting to collect information on related media content. To sum, the question of whether enhancements in women’s bargaining power result in improved well-being and decreased domestic violence appears to be an empirical question. Also, it remains an open question whether legal systems in developing countries are effective in changing personal laws and combatting structural inequality, or whether they instead serve to perpetuate it.