AT her husband’s funeral, a Muslim wife finds a strange woman and boy before crying at the grave. When the widow asked who they were, the woman said they were the dead man’s second wife and son.

Such stories are not uncommon, said lawyer Shareena Sheriff, an officer at Sisters in Islam (SIS), a Muslim women’s rights group.

Such cases also highlight why reform of the shariah family law system is high on the agenda of SIS, which is often criticised by ultra-conservative Muslim groups, which are incensed that it has recently received funding from the Pakatan Harapan government .
 
“There are cases where the second and third wives show up the funeral and the first wife does not know anything about them,” said Shareena, who is SIS advocacy, legal services and research manager.

“In such a situation, what are the wives supposed to do when it comes to splitting the inheritance?”

These are real stories, said SIS communications officer Majidah Hashim, of Muslim women in Malaysia’s problematic shariah family law system.

SIS hopes to use the RM20,000 grant from the government to analyse the data and stories it has gathered over 16 years to chart social trends and patterns to help the government craft better policies for Muslim families.

There are loopholes that need to be plugged in the Muslim Family Law Act 1984, which has led to much suffering for Muslim women.

Amendments to the law since 1994 allow Muslim men to take a second wife without the approval and knowledge of the first wife, usually by having the new marriage secretly solemnised in neighbouring Thailand.

These men return home and register their marriages in the shariah court system by paying a minimal court fine. The first wife is often kept in the dark about the new spouse.

According to a wide-ranging study on polygamy by SIS and three public universities – Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Universiti Malaya and and Universiti Sains Malaysia, 65% of first wives interviewed did not know that their husbands had taken another wife.

About 87% of children of polygamous marriages say they are emotionally and psychologically distressed by the experience.

“When Malaysia first introduced the Islamic Family Law in 1984, it was one of the best in the world. But we have regressed while other countries have progressed,” said Shareena.

“Most other Muslim countries from Morocco to Tunisia to Indonesia to Pakistan require formal court approval for a man to practice polygamy. Some places you can only marry in court, otherwise the marriage is not recognised.”

Helping the government

THe SIS legal aid office, Telenisa, was recently awarded a RM20,000 grant by the government.

The service has helped 8,400 Muslim women and men navigate the shariah court system which has been criticised for its inconsistent levels of service.

Majidah said SIS will decide how the money will be spent with officers from the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry.

“There are two aspects. We want the government to be involved so they know how each sen is spent and we want the government to see how Telenisa works, the types of women who approach us and the stories they tell.”

One proposal is to hold more Telenisa mobile clinics, said Majidah, where teams of counsellors and volunteers visit low-income communities to spread awareness on domestic violence and women’s rights in marriages, and offer legal advice.

Past clinics have visited communities in Johor, Malacca, Sarawak and the Klang Valley.

Another plan is to hire more experts to sift through the data to spot trends in the Telenisa cases that will help the ministry to draft better laws or amend regulations such as the one on polygamy.

“We are very encouraged by this government’s openness and how people like YB Hannah (Deputy Women, Family and Community Development minister Hannah Yeoh) are interested in the stories of women. We hope that we, the government and the public can benefit from the grant.” – March 14, 2019.