As Sri Lanka Mulls Reforming MMDA, New Report Highlights Shocking Degrading Of Muslim Women Through Existing Act
November 11, 2016
As Sri Lanka focuses on reforming the controversial Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act (MMDA) of 1951, a damning 61 page report has disclosed the many ugly sides of the MMDA in Sri Lanka, which has discriminated and rendered Muslim women less than equal as citizens in the country. This report also comes amidst hype around EU’s alleged demand to amend the act as a condition for GSP+. While there is no such condition attached to the GSP+ Sri Lanka has to show progress on international conventions, some of which have called for review of discriminatory family laws and raising the age of marriage for Muslims.
The report titled ‘Unequal Citizens: Muslim Women’s Struggle for Justice and Equality in Sri Lanka’ by Muslim women working in the area of human rights, has exposed many instances where children as young as 14 were married off and had to suffer sexual and physical abuse in the hands of their husbands, while in many instances even getting a divorce can be challenging for women.
The report detailing several case studies reveals how young girls were either forced into marriage, or had to undergo abuse, both physically and sexually post marriage for various reason including dowry matters. In one incident, a 15 year old girl was forced into marriage by a mosque committee citing ‘bad reputation’ even though she was not at fault and a man who had been harassing her demanding she marries him, tried to molest her after entering her home while she was changing her clothes.
Detailing the incident the report said, “A 15-year-old girl from the Eastern province was continually harassed by a man in her village who was asking her to marry him. She kept refusing him as she was still attending school and was not interested in marriage. One day when she was alone at home, the man had entered her house and when she was changing her clothes he had tried to molest her. She had screamed and neighbors had come from outside to help her, and had found the man in her bedroom. Shortly afterwards they had taken both the girl and the man to the mosque committee, and the mosque committee had insisted that the girl marry this man on the basis that she now had a “bad reputation” and therefore that no one else would want to marry her. The girl had refused but was forced into marriage, and because it was ordered by the mosque committee her family had not objected. After marriage the man was with the girl for only one month, after which he abandoned her. The girl who had dropped out of school has been living alone and fending for herself with little family support for the past 2.5 years.”
In another incident, a husband beat his 16 year old bride with a helmet, causing her serious injuries, because she refused to ask her mother and brother to sell the remaining property and give him a bigger dowry.
Detailing the case, the report said, “A 16-year-old girl from the Eastern province was given in marriage to a man from the same district after he had approached her mother and brother with a marriage proposal. The man asked for a big kaikuli (dowry) so the family sold half of their plot of land and bought him a motorbike, and gave the remainder in cash as kaikuli. After the nikah she had gone to live with him. After the third day of marriage, the man had pressured the girl into asking her family to sell the remainder of their land and property and give the money to him. To this she had objected saying that her family would have no place else to live if they did so. The man then began to be severely physically abusive towards her, and on the 10th day after marriage she was attacked with a helmet causing her serious injuries so that she had to be taken to the hospital. In the hospital she said that her injuries were because she had fallen, as she was too embarrassed and scared to mention the domestic violence to anyone. The husband had then dropped her at her mother’s house and abandoned her thereafter. Now at 18 years of age, she has obtained a fasah divorce but was unable to get back any of the kaikuli except the motorbike.”
