nikah marriage and divorce

It's not all that uncommon for non-Muslims to make incorrect assumptions about their rights and status, and what will happen if there is a separation, if they have been living together long-term without being married. I think many people have some confusion about this.

IME

A lot of Muslim women aren’t aware their nikah isn’t a legal marriage in England. They only find out when things go wrong.

A lot of mosques are now licensed for legal marriage contracts.

The mosques which aren’t tell the couple this beforehand, I know of a mosque which won’t conduct nikahs unless the legal marriage has been conducted.

Some couples are aware that nikahs are not legally binding but prefer that if they don’t want a legal wedding immediately for whatever reason. Eg they want to live together and both have independent wealth and don’t want to lose it if things don’t work out.

I personally think the nikah officiant should make it crystal clear that the nikah is not legally binding (if the mosque isn’t authorised to conduct legal marriages), and inform both parties that in the event of a divorce or death the mosque can do nothing to settle financial disputes or inheritance matters.

I’ve seen a lot of women also assume that as they’ve been long term in a nikah that it’s considered common law marriage. I’ve had to tell so many women that’s not the case.

If a couple are happy to only have a nikah knowing full well in the event of a divorce one of them will end up with the same rights as a cohabiting couple. Then that’s up to them.

Sign a form in a government office and boom, you married. Then have whatever ceremony you want.

That's what adherents of other religions do - and IME (though that's limited) in that order. Wouldn't the simplest solution (to prevent further cases) be for imams to insist on seeing the legal paperwork before allowing the religious ceremony? What possible justification could there be for them not doing this?

The only thing that should matter from the perspective of the state is the paperwork. Specific locations, officiants, etc is just window dressing. Sign a form in a government office and boom, you married. Then have whatever ceremony you want.

The One Law for All conference covered this last year with excellent contributions from a number of sources including Southall Black Sisters - SBS has issued this press release:

southallblacksisters.org.uk/press-releases/akhter-v-khan/