Muslim women urge expedited Marriage & Divorce Act reforms

Muslim women have had problems with regard to Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act (MMDA) and they have been demanding amendments for a quite some time, says former Minister Ferial Ashraff.

Representatives of Muslim women’s rights groups, including former Minister Ferial Ashraff, held a press conference today (26) to voice their demands for reforming the MMDA and concerns over the attempts to thwart the process.
 
Attorney-at-Law Safana Gul Begum, Julwairiya Mohideen from Muslim Women’s Development Trust (MWDT) in Puttalam, veteran human rights activist Deshabandu Jezima Ismail and Aneesa Firthous from Islamic Women’s Association for Research and Empowerment (IWARE) Kattankudy and Lawyer and member of Muslim Personal Law Reform Action Group (MPLRAG) Ermiza Tegal led the conference alongside the former minister.

Speaking further, Ferial Ashraff said, Muslim parliamentarians have taken the MMDA up in the House. Muslim women are confident that the MPs will be able to take this forward despite the challenges and present papers to the Cabinet to get the necessary amendments done to the MMDA in favour of the Muslims of Sri Lanka.

The Muslim women in Sri Lanka are not seeking amendments for God-given laws but for man-made laws, she continued.

Responding to a question posed by a media person, former Minister Ashraff said, “We can’t sweepingly say the ACJU is against reforming MMDA. The government-appointed committee came up with two reports, one which was supported by the ACJU. […] But there are few situations where they were unable to accept.”

Veteran rights activist Deshabandu Jezima Ismail, speaking of the misconceptions concerning the MMDA, emphasized that it is not only the elite, urban Muslim women who speak up for the amendments.

Stating that she had been working on bringing necessary amendments to the MMDA for nearly four decades, Ismail highlighted the efforts of certain noteworthy Muslim men in reforming the MMDA.

The amendments that the Muslim women seek are about the human values of Quranic justice and the discrimination against Muslim women, she added.

Attorney-at-Law Ermiza Tegal, addressing the press conference, said that Muslim women from diverse communities, lobbying for amendments in MMDA for many years, are now looking for reforms in the Act without delay.

Ms Tegal dismissed the claims that state the call for reforms in the MMDA is not coming from within the Muslim community. She referred to this urgency as “a historic call from within the Muslim community”.

The current MMDA, which came to place in 1951, is a piece of Sri Lankan legislation drafted by men and passed by a legislature of men, Ms Tegal pointed out.

The MMDA is discriminating, not benefiting and it leads to intimidation and violence of Muslim women and girls, in particular, Ms Tegal stressed. It reflects badly on the community in general, she said.

“Women’s demands are also demands that will ensure Muslim women are treated as equal citizens in Sri Lanka,” she continued.

The reforms that the Muslim women in Sri Lanka call for in the MMDA, as listed out by Ms Tegal, are as follows:

• The minimum age of marriage of all Muslims must be 18
• Women to be able to hold office in Qazi courts as judges, members of the Board of Qazis, marriage registrars, jurors, and registrars.
• MMDA must apply uniformity to all Muslims disfavoring the sect
• Mandating the signature or the thumbprint of both bride and groom in all official marriage documents
• Women to be given freedom in making decisions regarding marriage
• Mandatory registration of marriages
• Conditions to be imposed for Talaaq (divorce) and Faskh (annulment) to be equitable
• Dowry to be recorded in documents and recovered at the time of the divorce
• To introduce and recognize the concept of ‘marriage contract’
• To upgrade the Qazi court system to a family court system