The Muslim community has been in and out of the constitutional court with an attempt to make all Muslim marriages legal in South Africa. Their representative Advocate Nazreen Bawa, of the Women’s Legal Centre aims to achieve this goal to protect the women and children after divorce ir death of husband.
The case was submitted to the Constitutional Court in 2009 and has been going on all around the country ever since. The advocate has been asking the state to consider the Muslim marriage legal and valid in South Africa. Recently, it has been reported that the state is failing to do so and the WLC appealed to the president to admit to not being able to fulfil their wishes.
The Muslim marriage and the Constitution approved marriages are different as the Muslim do not necessarily get married by a judicial officer. Their marriage is automatically considered out of community property. Marriage out of community of property leaves women with no rights over anything after a divorce or when the husband dies. “Despite the fact that there have been several changes with regard to family law, Muslim marriages still fall outside the definition of legal marriage” Bawa stated.
The case is still ongoing and until changes that favour women in Muslim marriages are realised, Bawa says they won’t stop trying.
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