The quantity of Muslims inquiring for free felony advice on polygamy is rising, data from a criminal sanatorium operated by Sisters in Islam (SIS) has shown. Polygamy cases recorded on the Televisa legal, useful resource medical institution rose from seventy-five in 2016 to 106 in 2017 and 176 in 2018. The SIS said this changed into occurring against a backdrop of weakening criminal safety through the years for the current wife, which has made it more straightforward and less stressful for Muslim men to take on extra other halves.
SIS program manager Shareena Sheriff said many Muslim men secretly have subsequent marriages through going to the border of Thailand to skip Malaysian felony requirements that require these marriages to be tested in a Shariah courtroom. Shareena stated it was a weak point of Malaysian regulation that Muslims who marry abroad are allowed to sooner or later sign up in Malaysia without having first to have it authorized in court docket.
“So that is how those marriages continue to be a mystery, they marry in Thailand, they arrive again and secretly sign up it,” she stated on the launch of Televisa’s book on its 2018 data of cases it dealt with. “In many marriages, the marriages are not even registered. When divorces take place, the reputation of the wife is as if they have been in no way married,” she delivered.
According to Televisa, cases of subsequent marriages that went unregistered in Malaysia amounted to eleven.4 consistent with the scent of the 176 polygamy cases it dealt with in 2018, with affected better halves losing their rights to the inheritance and matrimonial belongings simultaneously as their children are regarded as illegitimate. Shareena also mentioned the problem of husbands refusing to provide cash to offer for the upkeep or reducing such finances for the spouse and kids from an earlier marriage after taking on a brand new spouse.
Out of the 176 polygamy cases at Televisa in 2018, 15.9 in line with cent revolved on proceedings of subsequent marriages without the modern-day spouse’s understanding, even as 15.2 consistent with cent have been on subsequent marriages without the contemporary spouse’s consent. Some of the contemporary other halves handiest discovered that their husbands had taken on additional other halves years later.
Cases wherein husbands gave no cash to their current better halves amounted to 9.7, consistent with the scent of the 176 instances. At the same time as 10.8 in keeping with cent said their kids now not acquire economic provision from the husband. As for the closing instances, 10.8 in line with cent had been on better halves being said, while nine.7 consistent with cent worried absconded husbands, 7.4 percent complaining of unjust rotation and 9.1 according to cent involved separate proceedings.
Those who consulted Televisa last year on polygamy consisted of the first wife in sixty-two of the 176 cases, the second one spouse (forty-one cases), 1/3 spouse (five instances), husband (two cases), and accomplice (37 cases). The Televisa guide additionally outlined the unfair legal guidelines in Malaysia on polygamy, with SIS noting that the rights of the current wife were an increasing number chiseled away over the years with criminal amendments in 1994 and 2006.
The 1994 amendment allows for mystery polygamous marriages through permitting the registration of illegal marriages — that have been entered into without the courtroom’s permission — with the price of a small first-class. Muslim men who wanted to marry an extra wife formerly had to reveal that marriage became simply and necessary. However, the 2006 change loosened it to either simply or essential, with the risk of adultery through the husband also time-honored as a critical situation.
The ebook through SIS also mentioned that Muslim guys are no longer legally required to preserve the usual living of their contemporary better halves, which SIS stated at once contradicts the Muslims’ holy ebook Al-Quran. The publication also indexed the legal guidelines in different Muslim international locations, consisting of ban polygamy like Turkey, which includes in Indonesia in which polygamous marriages call for court authorization upon fulfillment of strict guidelines handiest be concluded if the present other halves agree.
Laws in Muslim international locations like Egypt, Algeria, Bahrain, Jordan, Lebanon recognizes the spouse’s right to divorce after the husband enters into subsequent marriages. At the same time, Shareena stated that polygamy is not a condition for divorce in Malaysia. Among other matters, the book by Televisa covers statistics on and troubles of divorces, toddler custody, infant maintenance, and assets division or division of inheritance. Televisa, which has been giving unfastened criminal advice since 2008 on Islamic circle of relatives regulation and Shariah crook offenses, recorded a total of 576 customers in 2018.
Deputy women, family, and network improvement minister Hannah Yeoh, who officiated the release of the Televisa book, nowadays acknowledged the significance of SIS’s paintings. Yeoh additionally introduced a pledge of RM20,000 to SIS to aid its work, with the price range to be from her allocation as deputy minister. Yeoh encouraged SIS to move on a national roadshow to explain and present its records and findings inside the Televisa booklet to MPs and country assemblypersons within the respective states, as Islamic topics are below the jurisdiction of kingdom governments. In conjunction with International Women’s Day, Yeoh also took the possibility to well-known on behalf of the government’s work, including SIS, Women’s Aid Organisation, and Tenaganita. “I want to know your contribution to Malaysia well; I think Malaysians might be in a worse role if not on your efforts within the previous few many years,” she said.
