It's official now: Indian tennis star Sania Mirza will only be the 'second wife' of Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik. As per the Hanafi School of Islamic tradition, Sania becomes the second wife of Malik as he has divorced his "first wife" Ayesha Siddiqui.
Irrespective of whether they are married or not, Ayesha naturally became Malik's first wife now that he had divorced her. This makes Sania his second wife as per Hanafi tradition," Major G M Qadri, who was one of the mediators in the Ayesh-Malik divorce deal, pointed out today. Both the Siddiquis and the Maliks follow the Hanafi tradition.
Meanwhile, there was intense speculation about a "huge some" changing hands for the settlement. But Abid Rasool Khan, at whose residence the press conference was held, said "There was no monetary issue involved except Rs 15,000 under the Sharia." Farisa said the chapter is closed and that she was very happy. "I only wanted this (divorce). It has been done".
Qadri said "divorce has been settled and done and it was done after the intervention of community leaders. After hearing all three parties we decided that divorce should happen. There was no condition and amount (money) involved.
"Whatever has been done, has been done according to our religion and sharia. After negotiations all through last night, the divorce proceedings happened around 7-8 am this morning in the presence of a Qazi," he said. Later, addressing a press conference in front of Sania's house, Qadri said both Shoaib and Siddiqui family were initially in no mood to budge from their positions.
"Shoaib kept maintaining that he had not married anyone. Then we said this is a matter of our community. Everything is going in wrong direction and wrong signals are going. That is when he conceded and said alright", Qadri said.
He said the community elders decided to step in because the whole controversy was bringing a bad name to Islam, the community and to both the countries. So it was in the greater interest of the community and the two countries we counselled them.
Asked how Shoaib could sign a divorce if he had not married the girl, he said he would not go into issues of technicalities because the cricketer maintained that he had signed the 'nikahnamma' thinking it was a different girl. "We were not judgemental as to who was right or who was wrong in working out the compromise", Qadri said.
Rasool said they had been working for the last five days as the entire community was upset. "A lot of muck was thrown at each other. There were allegations and counter allegations and it was getting dirty". "We have not taken sides and resolved it peacefully. We worked all through last night and about 10-15 people were involved in it. The end result is a happy result," he said.
Rasool said both the families have gone through a very very rough time. "Ayesha's father is a heart bypass patient and her elder sister was going through pregnancy", he said.
Ayesha claimed Shoaib married her over phone and later dumped her due to her weight problems without taking a formal divorce. She had produced copies of the 'nikahnamma' to support her claim.
Shoaib, on the other hand, maintained that he never committed himself to Ayesha as he was sent photographs of a different lady during the relationship that grew over telephone conversations and internet chats.
Ayesha had filed an FIR against the all-rounder alleging fraud and criminal intimidation which had led to his passport being confiscated by Hyderabad Police for investigations.PTI
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