MMDA reform is about women’s and girls’ lives not political games

Muslim women (and men) who have engaged with the Quazi system and experienced the harm caused by the MMDA know too well the need for reform

Following the Parliamentary debates on the Women’s Ministry budget allocation commencing 8 March, fears are being raised within Muslim communities that reform of the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act (MMDA) is an attack on our identity, culture and religion. Whilst it is easy to understand why a minority that was targeted in recent years by chauvinist politics will be fearful of agendas to harm their interests, such fear mongering is counter-productive and against the actual interests of Muslim women, girls and wider community. 

It was disheartening to see how little acknowledgment there was of the experiences of Muslim women and girls in the debates in Parliament, especially by Muslim politicians. It was equally disturbing to watch the debates turn into opportunity to malign Muslims. It is very disappointing that some Muslim political and community figures are using the reform of the MMDA as a political tool to whip up fears and rally support for themselves. We know that after MMDA reform featured in the debates in Parliament, all political leadership and advocacy for reform have been severely criticised and threatened, and that several social media videos have condemned any ‘touching’ of Muslim law through reforms. 

An established pattern of threats and intimidation has sought to suppress constructive debate – within communities, particularly against women community activists, and in political spaces, most recently against women members of parliament raising the need for reforms. Whilst the opponents of reform claim to defend the religion, in fact, it is reform of the MMDA that is necessary to uphold the principles of Islam’s teachings on the rights and dignity of women and the protection of children. 

The introduction of reforms to the MMDA is neither new nor unprecedented. As the MMDA is a colonial (not entirely Islamic) law with serious problems, historically, both Muslim men and women have worked for its reform. The MMDA is derived from a Batavian text that was translated, approved and adopted as the Mohammedan Code of 1806 under Governor Alexander Johnston. Muslim men were the first to agitate for its reform, resulting in the 1929 Ordinance of Muslim Marriage and Divorce, in which they secured the introduction of marriage registration and the ‘Kathi’ system. Still unhappy with the law, Muslim men agitated for further reforms with partial success, and secured the establishment of the current Quazi system in 1951 under the current MMDA. 

Continued calls for reform

Since then, there have been continued calls for reform, including committees recommending reforms in 1956, 1976, 1984, 1990, 2006, 2009 and 2021. In particular, Muslim women have highlighted discrimination under the MMDA for over 40 years, but to no avail. Whilst Muslim men succeeded in securing reforms relating to administrative powers, the reforms that Muslim women have sought reflect calls for greater justice (Adl), fairness (Ishtilal) and equity (Safa), values promoted by Islam. Muslim women also demand that the basic procedural fairness and protections of the law which are extended to all other citizens be made available to Muslims. 

Despite well-documented marginalisation and harms caused under and by the MMDA to Muslim women and girls, some vocal elements have chosen to defend the existing colonial law from further reform on a purely (often unexplained) religious basis. This is despite the fact that the MMDA includes clearly both non-Islamic and un-Islamic practices (such as Kaikiuli – dowry in the form of movable property). It is clear, that the resistance to reform does not substantively engage with the actual proposed improvements to the law. 

Opponents of reform deny the lived realities of those who have experienced injustice, suffered indignity, struggled to free themselves from harm, and cruelty. In one video circulating over WhatsApp, the speaker asks, “Who has asked the government to change this law?” – with this one question denying the decades of concerns raised about the law by Muslim women and men working in communities across Sri Lanka. The opponents to reform are adopting a blanket political position that threatens both the Government and advocates – basically, ‘don’t touch our law’. 

Enabling the continuation of daily injustice

By recasting the calls for reform addressing real concerns as a form of injustice against Muslims, what opponents of reform are actually doing is enabling the continuation of daily injustice and suffering experienced by Muslims: that of young girls whose lives are condemned to poverty and disempowerment as a consequence of child marriage; that of women young and old, who have been abandoned, denied maintenance for children and self or denied matrimonial property as a consequence of polygamy; that of Muslim women who have had their children taken away by a spouse who has decided to bring up the children under a new mother, the second wife; that of women who have been left destitute after divorce, with no return of dowry or other property that had been given by the bride’s parents to the couple for the financial security of the bride; that of Muslim women who have waited several years embroiled in cases in appeal without a fair and just decision, whilst their husbands have married again and pursued family life anew; that of many other women, children and families that have experienced unfairness and harm as a consequence of this flawed law. 

The only achievement of the short-sighted attacks on anyone talking about reform is to condemn Muslim communities to suffer the consequences of harmful legal provisions and practices that are not supported by Islamic jurisprudence. Blocking long-awaited reform of the MMDA will be a lost opportunity to ensure Muslims in Sri Lanka have a personal law that caters to the interests of Muslim communities, through promoting key Islamic values of fairness and equality. The failure of Muslim politicians to move on reform constructively and transparently has left Muslim communities open to public criticism, and their inaction contributes to perpetuating harm and injustice in the lives of women and girls.

Listen to these voices sincerely 

Muslim women (and men) who have engaged with the Quazi system and experienced the harm caused by the MMDA know too well the need for reform. We need to listen to these voices sincerely. Rather than playing politics or stoking fears, we need a constructive conversation about how we ensure that Muslim women and girls are treated fairly with due respect and protected from harm whilst securing the religious and cultural rights of Muslims within Sri Lanka’s plural legal system.

With the Ministry of Justice, there is a draft MMDA amendment bill that is based largely on unanimously agreed reforms by both lawyers and religious leaders from the Muslim communities, building on past committees and public debates on MMDA reform. The MMDA amendments proposed by the 2021 Advisory Committee to the Ministry of Justice, which had broad consensus, were informed by Muslim citizens’ constitutional rights, Islamic values & jurisprudence and lived realities of Muslims in Sri Lanka. Further debates and discussion for and against MMDA reforms would be best served by starting with these well-considered and widely agreed proposals.

My own experience of working with members with divergent views on the 2021 Ministry of Justice advisory committee on MMDA reform showed me that we are able to have rational and respectful conversations that yield consensus rather than division. For all those who claim to care about the wellbeing of Muslim families, is it not time to engage in constructive dialogue and condemn this harmful and divisive fear-mongering? The government has a key role and equal responsibility in calming the tenor of the debate. The government must facilitate a constructive process with maximum transparency so that the public can engage with the substance of the proposed reforms instead of consuming inflammatory misinformation. MMDA reform is too important an issue to leave it to political games in Parliament or on social media.

(The writer is an Attorney at Law, co-founder of a voluntary collective Muslim Personal Law Reform Action Group (MPLRAG) and was a member of the 2021 Advisory Committee on Muslim Law Reforms to the Ministry of Justice.)