India, Nov. 8 -- Yami Gautam and Emraan Hashmi's courtroom drama Haq hit theatres yesterday (November 7), and audiences are loving it. What many might not know, however, is that Haq takes inspiration from one of India's most debated legal battles - the Shah Bano case, a turning point in the fight for Muslim women's rights.

The story goes back to April 1978, when Shah Bano, a 62-year-old woman from Indore, took her husband, lawyer Mohammad Ahmad Khan, to court. Married since 1932 and mother to five children, she had been abandoned after her husband took a second wife. When he stopped paying her maintenance, she filed a petition under Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) - a law ensuring financial support for a wife unable ...