Want to fix the Parsi birth rate? Protect the women

The Parsi Zoroastrian population is declining at 18 per cent each decade Recent efforts to increase the Parsi population including the National Commission for Minorities hosting a highlevel national seminar last month have missed a key reason for the consistent decline an unjust law that leaves Parsi women destituteBetween 2016 and 2019 the Indian Ministry of External Affairs received complaints from about 5000 Indian women who were abandoned overseas by husbands escaping their financial responsibility Among these abandoned spouses Parsi Zoroastrian women face additional cruelty because Indian law provides a loophole to absconding Parsi husbandsIn India the law that governs marriage and divorce is based on the personrsquos religion The Shah Bano Case from 1985 shed light on the grievous harm to Muslim women through the misogynistic Muslim Divorce law In court Shah Bano won a moral victory but it came without adequate or just compensation Recent cases such as the Nagpur Parsi Panchayat case filed by a woman who was denied entry to a Nagpur agiary for her grandmotherrsquos funeral in 2024 because she had married outside the community have focused on unequal marriage rules facing Parsi women who marry non Parsis Intermarried Parsi women face vast discrimination in accessing their place of worship inclusion of their children as Parsis and access to other community benefitsA newlywed Parsi couple pray in an agiary Pic Special ArrangementParsis also follow an archaic and misogynistic law governing marriage and divorce Due to an archaic Britishera law mdash the Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act 1936 mdash divorced Parsi spouses in India and overseas face gross injusticeThe 1936 law states ldquoMarriage contracted under the PMD Act cannot be dissolved by a decree of any other court except the Parsi Chief Matrimonial Court or the Parsi District Matrimonial Court with the aid of Parsi delegatesrdquoThis harms divorced spouses abroad in many ways1 When a Parsi couple is married in India they become forever bound by this misogynistic law So even after obtaining a divorce in a US court an absconding husband who runs away to India often escapes his legal obligations2 India has no treaty whereby a woman in the US can execute the divorce terms Therefore even when the wife was granted 200000 in alimony and child support by the US court she is unable to collect her rightful due3 The additional cruelty enforced by Parsi law is that it does not recognise the jurisdiction of any other court in any other country It ignores rulings by foreign courts The absconding husband can now again file for divorce this time in India in order to get a judgment where he can avoid alimony or child support So the wife is now forced to bear the cost and trauma of relitigating her divorce from overseas4 This process can take 510 years without pendente lite interim relief The Bombay High Court waits until the Parsi jury is convened only three months a year Parsi divorces are the only situation in India where a jury is called A scathing article in Law School Policy Review by Ashirbad Nayak titled Rights of Women A Critical Study of the Jury System in Parsi Matrimonial Law shows that in the slow and maledominated jury system jurors meet infrequently and make decisions influenced by community biases rather than strict law This severely disadvantages women who may endure public scrutiny and delays in cases of cruelty or incompatibility5 US Courts compute alimony and child support by considering both partiesrsquo income and living expenses in the US However Indian courts consider only basic living expenses in India The wife is forced to uproot herself and children who are US citizens to India where they have no connections When the absconding husband has ample means and property why doesnrsquot the court grant adequate maintenance instead of a pittance This demonstrates ingrained patriarchy6 This law also harms Parsi men For example when an absconding wife has decamped to India with a minor child even though the US court has granted the childrsquos custody to her USbased husband Since India and USA have no treaty in these matters such kidnappers break the law with impunity and a Parsi father loses his beloved childAccording to the National Judicial Academy foreign divorce decrees pose a crippling and costly barrier because Parsi law does not automatically recognise them Section 32B provides limited grounds but no broad enforcement mechanism leaving women to seek Indian court recognition under CPC Section 13 before collecting arrears or finalising status In Y Narasimha Rao v Y Venkata Lakshmi 1991 the Indian Supreme Court set standards for foreign decrees requiring alignment with Indian personal law which can force relitigation Justice it seems is a luxury that impoverishes Parsi womenChavda Law Associates points out that foreign divorce decrees are not automatically enforceable in India so a woman who wins alimony or child support abroad still needs to again bear the trauma and exorbitant cost to seek enforcement in India This leaves abandoned wives with paper rights but no practical recovery or maintenanceAn article in Bar and Bench magazine points out that the resulting inequality is especially harsh where the husband returns to India and files fresh proceedings to reduce or erase support obligations In such cases the wife may be forced to relitigate the divorce pay more legal costs and wait years for restitution while the husband continues to blithely evade responsibility The combined effect is not only extreme financial hardship but indicates that the legal system is slower to protect women than menWhy isnrsquot the noble Parsi community outraged at such gross injustice Why is a divorce granted in the US or UK not enforceable in India for Parsis The Hindu Marriage Act and even Muslim law often allow it so that women of other religions may be able to enforce the rulings of foreign divorce courts All Indian women should be spared this harsh burdenIgnoring the Zoroastrians dictum of lsquogood thoughts good words and good deedsrsquo such Parsis and their enabling relatives demonstrate vile cruelty Parsi men who shamefully abandon their financial responsibility should be scorned and ostracisedWhy doesnrsquot the Parsi community embrace the proposed Uniform Civil Code and demand justice for their daughters and sisters While the Zoroastrian community touts gender equality in India we find that it treats women shamefully The staggering decline in birth rate indicates that Parsi women suspect how grievously Indian matrimonial law discriminates against them Until the law offers full gender equality perhaps the best advice to Parsi women is ldquoDonrsquot marry in IndiardquoNawaz Merchant is President of the Zoroastrian Association of Greater New York Writing as Nev March she has published short stories articles and historical mysteries She has received numerous literary awards and also teaches at Rutgers Universityrsquos Osher Institute