Outlawed Violation of Human Rights or Protected Religious Practice?

Given the prominence of debates over classification in my classes I’m always on the look-out for a good e.g., something useful in getting us thinking about the interests driving classification systems and their practical effects — and, perhaps, illustrating how naming something as religion plays a role in all this.

And that’s why an NPR story this a.m. stood out for me. Click here to listen or play it below.

It involves divorce in Islam and it’s being contested in Indian courts.

As the story details: “India’s Supreme Court will consider whether talaq is integral to Islam and thus a practice constitutionally protected under freedom of religion.”

It elaborates:

Listen to the story and answer for yourself it’s closing question: should the court “ban talaq as a violation of equal rights or uphold it as a religious practice” — or, better yet, consider why and how someone might argue one side over the other.

[http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/03/26/521362478/muslims-in-india-ask-top-court-to-ban-instant-divorce]