Meet Sameena who is leading polygamy fight

As the government builds case to ban nikah halala and polygamy among Muslims, 40-year -old Sameena Begum hopes to pull off a Shayara Bano and put an end to the misery that women like her face.

The mother of three and a resident of Delhi, Sameena is one of the main petitioners in the case along with Delhi-based advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay.

Referring to 35-year-old Bano’s petition that led to the SC declaring instant triple talaq unconstitutional last year, Sameena says that it is not enough and polygamy and halala are equally repressive.


In her petition, she has said that by virtue of Muslim Personal Law, Section 494 of the IPC (marrying again during the lifetime of husband or wife) was rendered inapplicable to Muslims and no married woman from the community had the avenue of filing a complaint against her husband for the offence of bigamy.

The daughter of a government school teacher in Sambhal (UP) , Sameena was first married in 1999 in Delhi at the age of 18. “Delhi had its own charm and I was actually happy to be with my husband who was a journalist,” says Sameena , adding “but there were several instances of abuse and then a complaint under the Dowry Act.” Her husband then divorced her through a letter. She was forced to marry again by her family in 2012, this time to an already married man from Bulandshahr. After she was on her family way for the third time and barely a year into the marriage, she was divorced by her husband over a phone call.

Left with three children to raise and without much parental support after her father passed away, Sameena says that she struggled to make ends meet and did not have enough money to file a case in the court against the divorces.

While surviving on her deceased father’s pension, Shayara’s case inspired her to take some action.

“I started talking to other women through activists and social media and formed Mission Talaq, an NGO, says Sameena, adding “It was through her talks that she got in touch with her lawyer Archana Dave Pathak who later helped her file her petition in the SC in March this year.