The Tory Party may be about to unintentionally adopt the Islamic approach to Divorce.
Islam discourages divorce but, unlike some religions, does make provisions for divorce by either party. Islam encourages the husband and wife to appoint arbitrators as the first step to aid in reconciliation in the process of divorce. If the reconciliation step fails, both the man and woman are guaranteed the right to divorce as established in the Quran.
The pronouncement by the husband may be verbal or written, but once made, there is to be a waiting period of three months ('Iddah).
Imagine my surprise when I read that the "cooling off" period proposed by the Tory think tank is coincidentally three months and as in the case on arbitrators in Islam, the Tory think tank is also proposing a "network of family relationship centres".
Sunday, 12 July 2009
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A sound idea - but why not put more in place to counsel and provide relationship skills to couples before they marry in the first place? If people felt that the divorce process was truly fair and protected their rights, they would still prefer to marry (rather than have 'spiritual' weddings without the legal signing) so rather than put people off, a 3 month initiation period might encourage couples to move into marriage with some basic relationship skills, and access to support networks, which would help them through the tricky times.
ReplyDeleteSuzy Miller
Producer of Starting Over Show
www.startingovershow.co.uk
In Islam, a Muslim woman has also got the rights to initiate the divorce process; however this is less common and thus less focused on in research and education context. The woman, based on Islamic law and procedures has two options for obtaining a divorce from her husband. One such way is for the Muslim woman herself, to have private negotiations with her husband "in order to secure his agreement to release her from the marriage." (Vatuk). This type of divorce that is initiated by the woman is known as "Khul." If the negotiation with her husband does not produce the desired outcome of divorce, due to him refusing, the woman has a right to consult the Muslim courts to grant the divorce with Muslim law. This is the other option of a Muslim women's divorce from her husband. Just click here at How To Divorce to get some more information about this subject.
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