Cape Town - The Women’s Legal Centre Trust (WLCT) has taken President Jacob Zuma, Parliament and two government departments to court to have the Muslim Marriages Bill made law within a year.
Muslim marriages will be recognised when the bill becomes law. The process’s genesis was in 2010 when a notice was published in the Government Gazette - followed by invitations for public comment.
In her founding affidavit in court papers on Tuesday, Trust attorney Hoodah Abrahams-Fayker said there had been no developments since and, as a result, Muslim women had remained socially vulnerable and disadvantaged.
The case before the Western Cape High Court on Tuesday involved the Trust as the appellant and Zuma, the ministers of Justice and Constitutional Development and Home Affairs, the Speaker of the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces chairperson as respondents. The parties agreed to postpone the matter until June.
State advocate Melanie Faure did not respond to requests for comment by deadline, while Department of Justice and Constitutional Development deputy director of public relations Steve Mahlangu said it would respond on Wednesday.
Abrahams-Fayker said the respondents had failed to fulfil the obligations imposed on them by section 237 of chapter 14 of the constitution - that “all constitutional obligations must be performed diligently and without delay”.
The Muslim Marriages Bill emanated from a 1997 South African Law Reform Commission probe into Muslim marriages. Abrahams-Fayker said the fact that Muslim marriages were still not legalised was especially damning for women.
“This is particularly so as it is more difficult for Muslim wives to terminate their marriage, whereas their husbands are able to access divorce with relative ease through informal processes and often without just cause,” she said.
Abrahams-Fayker said in her affidavit: “In the 20 years since the advent of our non-racial constitutional democracy, many Muslims have remained or have become parties to Muslim marriages, which are not recognised as valid marriages in South Africa. The views expressed by the courts have been pre-democratic era judgments.”
The Trust is also seeking that the Divorce Act be applied to Muslim marriages and that the common law definition of marriages be extended to include Muslim marriages.
Because the law does not recognise their marriages, Muslim women carry second-class status that has persisted since the end of slavery.
Many Muslim women still endure difficulties regarding inheritance and financial security when they get divorced or when their husbands die.
The Constitutional Court in 2009 dismissed the Trust’s launching of an application for direct access to it on the basis that the various organs of state had failed to enact legislation relating to Muslim marriages.
United Ulama Council of SA spokesman Mohamed Shoaib Omar said there was a dire need for a viable statutory framework for Muslim marriages.
“The council supports any effort to have the bill become legislation. There are a number of problems that Muslim couples face,” Omar said.
Abrahams-Fayker asked women to contact the Trust’s offices to share experiences in instances where they had tried to dissolve their marriage according to Muslim rites.
The Women’s Legal Centre can be contacted at 021 424 5660.
Cape Times