21 July 2011

The Government may recognise polygamous shariah marriages

.... The paper for an internal "Integration and Tolerance Working Group", titled "Creating the conditions for integration", says:

"Similarly, religious marriage is not recognised by the State unless you choose for it to be so. This leaves an individual who enters into religious marriages unprotected if their partner enters a second or third religious marriage. This can be remedied by requiring both religious marriages and religious divorces to be registered with civil authorities. Likewise, there could be a duty on anyone conducting religious marriages and divorces to register with the state."

Although this language doesn't specifically cite Islamic marriages, it clearly refers to them, since no other mainstream faith allows a person to enter into more than a single marriage at one time.

[A COMMENT] .... the government is not considering repealing the law prohibiting bigamy. Instead, this is simply the latest in a long line of attempts to provide extra legal protection for those trapped in the minority of rigid patriarchal groups of Muslims who seek to treat women as second-class citizens at best, and property at worst. [ConservativeHome] Read more