.... One of the inquiry's main purposes was to ensure women would not have to face a religious body steeped in patriarchy and discriminatory sharia 'law' deciding whether to grant them a divorce or not – and, in the worst instances, advising them to stay in the marriage. Many Muslim men do not need sharia 'courts' because they can divorce unilaterally under some interpretations of Islamic law. Women cannot and so need to prove grounds for divorce to the 'court'.
The position is already unequal; now imagine the prospect of having to obtain a divorce from such a body because if you do not, you won't even get the civil divorce. That would represent an unconscionable erosion of equal treatment rights. It is not the way to remedy concerns about the treatment of vulnerable women. Indeed it will place Muslim women in an inferior position compared to other women.
Ultimately the Government should ask why the review came up with such an unpalatable set of suggestions on reform of the marriage law. And when it does so it should realise that the only comprehensive solution would enshrine marriage as a secular institution in the eyes of the law. [National Secular Society] Read more
