Muslim wives legally invisible

[ShowMeTheHunny]

Perhaps this should be in the feminism chat, but I’ve just found out something shocking: 60% of British Muslim women are in Nikah only marriages.

Nikah is a religious marriage ceremony. Unlike Jewish or Christian marriages, there is no automatic civil registration.

This means that under British law a Muslim woman with a Nikah marriage is in fact not married at all. If the relationship ends (through separation, divorce, or death), she has: no right to spousal maintenance, no claim to property or pensions, no inheritance rights and no access to the protections of the UK Family Court.

This has been raised in parliament. This has been raised by judges. The 2018 government review found that many Muslim women believed their Nikah marriage had legal standing.

Anything done about it? Nope.

I wondered if this is covered in schools. There is a statutory relationships and sex education guidance that the DfE published which schools must follow. It does require teaching about marriage, but NOTHING in the statutory wording prompts schools to explain the difference between a religious-only ceremony and a civilly recognised marriage.

So, many/most of you might be thinking, ‘So what? It’s none of our business to interfere with others’ religious or cultural practices! Surely it’s the same situation in other countries?’

Nope. The following countries ensure, through legislation, that Islamic marriage ceremonies happen after or alongside civil registration:

France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Finland, Sweden….basically all the European countries….except Britain.

Anyway, anyone else shocked?

No, they said "legally worthless ceremony" but i don't suppose that suits your outrage.

You've only just found this out?

It’s not that surprising.

Bit rich to be talking about facts, when they said legally worthless and that's 100% true. Speaking as someone who also engaged in a legally worthless marriage rite and wouldn't want the state sticking its beak into that part.

I'm aware some mosques are self -regulating as well

In effect , at least in the UK, they're all self regulating, @FourIsNewSix
There are a few voluntary codes they can choose to sign up to via the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board, but since Islam has no "central authority" as such they can't really be anything but self regulating

Yes.
I meant self-regulating as the opposite option to state regulating.

It isn't illegal to offer Nikah without previous state registration (as it is in some other countries), but some Mosques wouldn't do it because it causes weird/unenforceable position.
Some do it anyway - either from good reasons (if both parties understand the implications of not being married before the law) or from questionable reasons.