Two Muslim brothers currently living in the United States have divorced their wives using the Whatsapp messaging app.

The men used a controversial and ancient Islamic practice still accepted in some parts of the Muslim world whereby a husband seeking to divorce his wife only need say “ant talaq” (I divorce you) three times to end his marriage. Usually, this occurs on three separate occasions. 'Triple talaq', as used in this case, is when the husband says it three times at once.

The two women who live with their children in the central Indian city of Hyderabad have complained to the local Police. However, they are unlikely to get any result because although highly contentious, at this stage the practice remains legal among the Muslim communities of India. It's a different story for women. They have almost no rights when a marriage ends. They can't initiate this divorce. And they are powerless when their husbands do.

One of the women commented, “Sharia law lets you divorce me, but who is going to look after our children? Doesn’t Sharia law ask of you to take care of your children?”

An ongoing campaign by women’s rights activists in India, spearheaded by the All India Muslim Women Personal Law Board (AIMWPLB), was recently successful in petitioning the country’s Supreme Court to review the legality of triple talaq. The group’s President, Shaista Amber, suggests introducing a punishment could act as a deterrent for men considering the ‘triple talaq’ method to divorce quickly without valid reasons to end the marriage.

Shaista Amber argues the Quran “says there must be time for reconciliation between partners.” 

A form of divorce known as "Khula" gives women the power to initiate divorce by returning their husband's wedding gift. This is the practice preferred by the AIMWPLB.

Last year senior Pakistani clerics successfully argued that as well as the man who used triple talaq to divorce his wife, any authority which accepted such a divorce as legally valid should also be punished. 

Pakistan, along with Iran, Iraq and Turkey has outlawed the practice of triple talaq.