English law does not recognise sharia courts. Nor should it. Yet they still have a considerable influence in England, especially in the area of family life. Women have fewer rights against their husbands under sharia law than those who marry under civil law, which is why last spring’s independent review into the workings of sharia law recommended strongly that all Muslim marriages be registered with the civil authorities as well. If they are not, they are not legally marriages at all, which deprives the women and their children of much of the protection of the law if the marriage collapses. The review was entirely plain on this: no one who gave evidence disputed that “sharia councils engage in practices which are discriminatory to women”.
Yet many devout Muslims feel that their marriage is not real unless it has been religiously blessed and celebrated. This isn’t something the law or society should trample over, any more than it would do so in the case of Christian sensibilities. The requirement that marriages be celebrated in both forms is an entirely sensible compromise. But even if this were to happen tomorrow, it is a reform that would do nothing for the tens of thousands of women who now find themselves outside the protection that the law intends for all married couples. And it won’t happen tomorrow. The independent review observed that one motive for failing to register a Muslim marriage was a simple calculation of financial self-interest on the husband’s part.
Continue reading...from Islam | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2nfJldO
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