SUNDAY, JANUARY 19, 2003
Malaysian Muslim women get tough on polygamy
AFP
KUALA LUMPUR: In the latest twist to a controversial debate, Muslim women in Malaysia have been told they have the right to include a no-polygamy clause in their marriage contracts.
Sisters In Islam research manager Nik Noriani Nik Badli Shah told Star newspaper on Saturday that not many Muslim women were aware of this right, and those who did were discouraged from using it by social pressure.
"It is up to individual couples whether to use it or not, but Islam sanctions the inclusion of such conditions in the marriage contract," she said.
Muslim countries such as Syria, Jordan, Morocco, Egypt, Iran, Pakistan and Bangladesh had already adopted the ruling that a husband who had agreed in his marriage contract not to take another wife would be bound by that stipulation, the Star said. Nik Noriani said the Prophet Muhammad's great-grand-daughter Sakina Hussein, had included several conditions in her marriage contract, including that her husband would have no right to take another wife.
She said existing sharia (Islamic) laws allowed for the registration of additional Ta'liq clauses, but this was not usually done.
Ta'liq are conditions in the marriage contract that allow for divorce.
The current standard Ta'liq only provides for divorce in cases of desertion, non-maintenance or cruelty.
Sisters in Islam also recommends that laws should be amended to ensure that courts would automatically order a husband to transfer to the first wife her share of jointly acquired wealth before marrying again.
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