A survey has found that 60% of women in the UK who have been married in a traditional Muslim wedding ceremony do not have their marriages legally recognised. This means that they are left without protection and rights.
The survey found that the almost all married Muslim women have had a nikah, which is the religious marriage ceremony. It also found, however, that 61% of these women had not gone through the civil ceremony which would make their marriage legally binding under UK law.
This means that if the woman’s marriage is to break down, they will find themselves unable to go to family court. The inability to take the breakdown of the marriage to family court means that they are unable to legally obtain division of assets, including their home and the pension of their spouse.
The survey took place for a channel 4 documentary called ‘The Truth About Muslim Marriage.’ The researchers, who were female Muslims, surveyed 923 women across 14 cities in the UK.
The women found that over 75% of women they spoke to wanted their marriages to be recognised officially under UK law.
One of the downsides of the nikah marriages is the speed and ease at which husbands are able to divorce their wives. The process is known as a ‘triple talaq’ and is an instant process, that can be done on social media or by phone.
An IT consultant Rukshana Noor, said she was unable to visit the family court after the breakdown of her marriage. In family courts, judges will begin with splitting the division of assets 50-50.
Noor had to go to a civil court to show that she had made contributions to the payments for her family home, something which cost her £100,000 and took 5 years.
Aina Khan, a layer who specialises in Islamic family law said: ‘My experience of 25 years as a lawyer specialising in Islamic marriage and divorce is that this is not only a major problem but a growing problem. My anecdotal evidence suggests that in the last five years, the proportion of people under 40 having nikah-only marriages is as high as 80%.’
5 years ago, she launched a campaign, Register Our Marriage, which looks to make all marriages registered. The campaign said that over 100,000 people in the UK have non-legally binding marriages, while more than 90% of mosques in the UK do not register religious marriages under civil law.
She said she wanted marriage laws to be the same for everyone in the UK, saying: ‘All faiths must be governed by the rule of law. We shouldn’t have to opt in to a system; the default position should be that all marriages must be registered.’
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