Pakistani Women Should Demand....
Women in Pakistan should demand a similar Nikahnama that levels the matrimonial playing field.- t
In August of this year, The Muslim Institute, a think-tank based in the UK, released a new Muslim marriage contract or nikahnama. The new nikahnama, which took four years of negotiations among various Islamic sharia councils, has been welcomed as the most historic advance in sharia law in Britain in a hundred years.
Noteworthy changes in the nikahnama include an overt commitment to equality between men and women. This is translated into actual stipulations by: doing away with the wali requirement and enabling Muslim women to contract their own marriages, delegation of the right to divorce or talaq-e-tafweed — making it possible for either party to initiate divorce proceedings without affecting their financial rights under the contract, and forbidding polygamy both in the UK and abroad.
The new nikahnama has been endorsed by several leading Muslim organisations in the UK including the Imams and Mosques Council (UK), Muslim Council of Britain, The Muslim Law (Shariah) Council UK, Utrujj Foundation and The Muslim Parliament of Great Britain.
According to the authors, one of the purposes of the document is to bring Muslim family law in Britain in line with the advances in sharia jurisprudence that have been legislated in other parts of the Muslim world.
In terms of substantive progress, the new nikahnama should be celebrated as a form of consensus among British Muslims that recognises the urgent necessity of reforming sharia towards gender equality
In August of this year, The Muslim Institute, a think-tank based in the UK, released a new Muslim marriage contract or nikahnama. The new nikahnama, which took four years of negotiations among various Islamic sharia councils, has been welcomed as the most historic advance in sharia law in Britain in a hundred years.
Noteworthy changes in the nikahnama include an overt commitment to equality between men and women. This is translated into actual stipulations by: doing away with the wali requirement and enabling Muslim women to contract their own marriages, delegation of the right to divorce or talaq-e-tafweed — making it possible for either party to initiate divorce proceedings without affecting their financial rights under the contract, and forbidding polygamy both in the UK and abroad.
The new nikahnama has been endorsed by several leading Muslim organisations in the UK including the Imams and Mosques Council (UK), Muslim Council of Britain, The Muslim Law (Shariah) Council UK, Utrujj Foundation and The Muslim Parliament of Great Britain.
According to the authors, one of the purposes of the document is to bring Muslim family law in Britain in line with the advances in sharia jurisprudence that have been legislated in other parts of the Muslim world.
The new nikahnama —Rafia Zakaria
In terms of substantive progress, the new nikahnama should be celebrated as a form of consensus among British Muslims that recognises the urgent necessity of reforming sharia towards gender equality
posted by temporal at 10/19/2008
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