MMDA: An Open Letter To My Muslim Community
Our community is currently divided over debates regarding reforms to the Sri Lankan Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act (MMDA). The discussions are happening at multiple levels, these include whether or not the MMDA needs to be reformed, the reasons why and what kind of reforms are actually needed.
There are perhaps as many opinions as there Muslims in Sri Lanka, however in my observations over the past one year, the majority of our community refuses to support and/or advocate for all the demands for reforms that are coming from the very women who are and have been directly affected by discriminations under the MMDA and the Quazi court system. There is marked reluctance from the Sri Lankan Muslim community to accept that there are major (not just few and minor) problems with the MMDA and the Quazi court system, and that the current state of affairs is untenable.
This has left me with so many questions that I wish to express in this open letter to my community.
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Well as you know, the reality is that there are certain provisions and procedures in the MMDA as well as practical issues in the Quazi court system that are harmful to Muslim women, and are treating Muslim women in an unfair and unjust manner. So many of our Sri Lankan Muslim sisters have been through so much trauma because they were married very young, divorced with no reason or warning, forced to be in polygamous marriages, and mistreated at the Quazi courts because the judges favored their husbands. Instead of encouraging compassion and harmony, the MMDA has become one of the main reasons for marital breakdowns among Muslims, who have a very high divorce rate in Sri Lanka.
These issues have been raised time and again by our sisters all over the country for many years. But they seem to fall on deaf ears, because our own community doesn’t want to listen to us or trust our experiences.
So firstly, lets ask ourselves, is the current MMDA the type of law and justice system we want associated with our community?
The family is the core unit of our community and society, it is the first place that we learn how to be good human beings, so it should be the first place where justice and equality is practiced.
It is also the first place we learn Islam. So what kind of Islam are we teaching our children, when they see what many of their Muslim mothers, aunts and sisters go through in Sri Lanka?
