Distressed Muslim women in Orissa may not get any help from the law against domestic violence as the Orissa Government likes to follow Islamic laws in their cases.

The state Government would like to go by Islamic laws as “we need not enter into controversies by entertaining cases relating to Muslim women,” Women and Child Development Minister Pramilla Mallick said on

Monday.

Mallick said the Government faced opposition from the Muslim community when it tried to intervene when one Nazma Bibi’s husband wanted to withdraw talaq given in an inebriated state in Bhadrak last year. “The Government faced ire of the Muslims by trying to help Nazma Bibi.” Admitting that a large number of Muslim women also face violence, she said “what can we do? With Nazma’s experience, we will like to take steps with adequate precaution”.