Nailak and Montysma etc.,, if you have not registered your marriage civilly (legally) then you are held to be a common law spouse and you have nothing but the good will of your so-called H to depend upon if it all goes tits up for you. You are living in a fool's paradise in other words. Sharia marriage laws are absolutely not a liberation for any woman.
'what matters to me is Islamic laws so how is it irrelevant. As long as it doesn't go against UK laws obviously.'
Nailak and Montysma, I can't believe how little you know about British law, which is basically the substance of British history. I am Irish born and educated and I am streets ahead of you.
Islamic/Sharia law is fundamentally in opposition to British law because British law presupposes equality of all citizens as a fundamental foundation, whereas Islamic law does not; it distinguishes between men's rights and women's rights. Islamic law/ Sharia law is basically the law of God as broadcast and interpreted by the Prophet. Those who can interpret it do not require any specific training, just a position of leadership and a band of followers to give the interpretation some sort of influence. British law is the product of hundreds of years of British history and is based very broadly on ideas derived from Judeo-Christian/ Greek culture. Very generally, it seeks to balance the rights of the individual with the interests of society. Hence all the various freedoms individuals have in the UK -- of conscience, speech, dress, association... British law guarantees you the right to be a practicing Muslim woman even in a country where the Monarch is the Head of the Church of England. Sharia law guarantees that you would be killed as an apostate if you tried practicing any religion other than the state-favoured one in places like SA if you were born a Muslim, just as an example of the vast differences.
Both Catholics and Jews operate their own marriage tribunals; in the case of Jews as I explained earlier the Bet Din grants religious divorces, and in the case of the RC church the process of annulment decides whether a marriage was valid in the eyes of the Church. A devout Jew or Catholic would probably not remarry in a church or synagogue without first obtaining a decree from either church -- in the case of Catholics, the RC church would not allow a second or subsequent marriage in the church unless the first marriage(s) had been declared invalid first anyhow so a chirch second marriage would be out of the question, not sure how the Bet Din works in that regard. But a Catholic of Jew would both be free to marry in a registry office without the dispensation of the Tribunal or the Bet Din no matter what. What is being claimed here is that Sharia law or Islamic law is the only thing that matters, obviously out of pure (and shocking) ignorance of British law. There is also a good deal of misinterpretation/ignorance of what the RC church holds wrt marriage, but that is par for the course here..
Nailak, you can't actually adhere to Sharia and British civil law at the same time. They are fundamentally opposed. Proponents of Sharia in the UK are by their very existence and actions spitting on British law and the hundreds of years of history behind it and on everything it stands for. One of the basic elements of British law is that there is only one law, for all, regardless of your state in life, your religion, your ethnic origin or who you may think you are.
The posts where people are saying that Islamic law is the only thing that matters to them are truly scary, and imo they prove that the French are absolutely right to have done what they have done. It is high time that Britain followed suit. Until then we will go on living in parallel universes.