By Soraya M. Deen –

“I am for truth no matter who tells it. I am for justice no matter who it is for or against.” ~ MalcolmX

For almost ten years the Marsoof Committee worked to bring about consensus and reform to the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act. (MMDA). Female activists stood in protest on the streets, braving the sun and the rain with signs that called on Parliament and the All Ceylon Jamaithul Ulama to reform MMDA laws. The pleas of activists, victims and advocates were ignored and disregarded and fell on deaf years.

We avoided reality, but sadly today, we are unable to avoid the consequences of avoiding the reality.

It is surreal. In the year 2020, Muslims women were being told by our religious actors that, child marriage was a religious requirement. Muslim women were incapable of heading Qazi courts. (Even though in Muslim majority countries like Tunisia, Malaysia, Egypt, Morocco have female Muslim judges). Female Genital Mutilation is religiously mandated. That polygamy must be acceptable as it is stated in the Quran.

I myself watched and participated in a myriad of ways to highlight the anguish and suffering of muslim women. The hard work of fellow activists calling for urgent reform to the Muslim family laws, fell on deaf ears. For Muslims denying truth will not change the facts. We Muslims must acknowledge that the man made Sharia laws comprising the bulk of the Muslim Family laws does not favor Muslim women.

Last year I met Fathima (not her real name) who was working with about 20 Muslim women who have suffered untold hardships at the justice served to them at the Qazi courts. She herself was a victim. She said to me that, “Men were liberally allowed to pronounce Talaq, their divorces were finalized and granted. Maintenance payments were always in dispute with the men refusing to pay or denying means to pay. Before such important issues of maintenance, child support were settled, before any formal redress was given by the Qazi court to the woman, the man already enters into a second, third and sometimes fourth marriage.”

Fathima continues, “Almost all these women I counsel have been left with no means of sustenance. Bereft of any financial support, we struggle to enforce the divorce decree only to find that the man has moved out of town. I live around Kandy, I can’t afford transport costs to Jaffna to collect a small amount of child support.”

The stories are endless.

The suffering of these women has never been acknowledged. The Qazi courts could have learned from its mistakes if it weren’t too busy dyeing them.

Religion or Reason..

“The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, articulated the rights and freedoms to which every human being is equally and inalienably entitled. It has become a yardstick by which we measure right and wrong. Available in more than 360 languages, the Declaration is the most translated document in the world. It inspires us to continue working to ensure that all people can gain freedom, equality and dignity. It goes further to say that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”

This Declaration I assert, is one of the finest documents dealing with Human Rights. We must read and reread this. Spending hours looking for hidden wisdom in our scriptures has not benefited the community.

The long standing grievances of Muslim women has became a political tool. Sadly the Muslim Parliamentarians have also failed to take and promote decisive action. The community as a whole did not support reform either. Succumbing to our biggest weakness of “Muslim Fragility,” we always chose to hide behind the wall of a pristine Islam and an imaginary monolithic perfect Community – The Ummah.

Rather than face the contextual realities of our times, we are seeking to freeze our religion and look for 7th century solutions for 21st century social problems.

New realities are emerging in the public square…and the community continues to lack strong visionary leadership. Citizenship, civic responsibility are no values we instill in our youth anymore. Versed in the text but not in the context the Muslim communities are silenced by religious authority and political pundits.

We didn’t want to offend Islam, we thought we were defending Islam. Authority became truth and we did not dare question any practices and rituals, we failed to stand up against the abysmal rights of women. We watched helplessly as the religious actors, making good living, with foreign sponsorship using not the Quran but books of Hadith to preach and teach a new Islam where the men claimed legitimate lustful privilege of even taking a child as a wife.

During one of my trips to Batticaloa, my friend and colleague sought my counsel to stop the child marriage of a 14 year old little girl who was the friend of his daughter. The story was that the father was adamant to give her in marriage, the mother didn’t want it, and the little girl wanted to study! Everyday, this little girl who needed books not a husband would silently cry in the classroom thinking about the impending marriage against her will, without her consent. We must grieve because we know without a doubt that this level of reluctance in the community to educate the girls will keep half the community backward.

Today we know that child marriage has reached the highest in Batticaloa. Today we also know that even in Muslim majority countries, this law has been reformed. In countries like Bangladesh, Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia they have set the minimum age of marriage to 18 years.

Hiding behind the umbrella of religion and borrowed culture, the ACJU (All Ceylon Jamaithul Ulema) was-adamant to control the outcomes…
So they delayed meaningful action, reform and any change …

The President’s Call ….

In parliament on August 20th, the President outlined the government’s plans. He mentioned that the first task of the government would be to remove the 19th amendment and , “After that all of us will get together to formulate a new constitution suitable for the country. In this the priority will be given to the concept of one country, one law for all the people.”

Moreover, the rising Buddhist influence in Sri Lanka is no passing weather…The President has claimed that the state ministries were structured based on the views of his Sangha Advisory Council. In addition the placement of minority religions including Islam under the ministry of Buddha Sasana Religious and cultural Affairs with a Sinhala Buddhist cabinet and state ministers is deeply disturbing.

For Muslims the hallowed words “One Country One Law,” conjure up one possibility. So far these words have been defined by hard line Buddhists to mean the removal and repeal of the Muslim personal laws.

The chilling backdrop…

The reprisals for the Eater Sunday bombings that killed more than 250 people has been heavy on Muslims. Muslims lost majority Buddhist support. Using the security of the Bo-tree, hard line Buddhist monks continue to spread hatred and ill will towards the Muslims. Anti-Muslim violence with mobs vandalizing mosques, homes and businesses has brought the Sri Lankan Muslim communities to its knees. We have since witnessed the Buddhist nationalistic anti Muslim hatred demanding the abolishing of the MMDA.

Racism and bigotry have become celebrated values in Sri Lanka.

The Bodhu Bala Sena Bodu Bala Sena, the Sinhalese Buddhist nationalist organization headed by Venerable Galagoda Atte Gnanasara has openly called for the discrimination and annihilation of Muslims and establishing a Buddhist only government and nation. The Thero does not mince his words when he claims that his groups worked hard to bring the current government to power and their business is not finished until there is one law in the country.

We didn’t treat our women right

“There is the presumption that men and boys are superior to women and girls. This is not an extremist thought, it is mainstream in my Baptist tradition and in your Islamic tradition. This discrimination is supported by some male religious leaders who distort the Bible and the Quran and other sacred texts. Many men disagree, but remain quiet in order to enjoy the benefits of their dominant status. We MUST STOP this.” – President Jimmy Carter

The only time I saw the ACJU stand up for the Muslim women was to demand that she be allowed to wear the Hijab and Burqa. They have been adamantly active against reform. They have failed to ensue the fundamental rights of Muslim women From the Halal fiasco to the 14th century patriarchal norms they were legitimizing, without a strong vision for the community our religious actors have failed the community in every way. There has been an exercise of absolute power, especially in a cruel and oppressive way.

What are we trying to preserve?

Between the calls for reform and repeal, we Muslims must know what we are fighting to keep and what we are rejecting.

The MMDA has legal provisions that are discriminatory and unjust towards Muslim women.

The claim of the religious actors are that these laws are based on Sharia and therefore cannot be changed. Nothing can be further than the truth. The laws contained in the MMDA are all man made.

These laws are cultural and unique to Sri Lanka. They are based on Islamic and non Islamic sources.

These laws have failed to take into account any human rights principles. The Muslim religious actors so far have led us to believe in the assumption that what was good for us 1400 years ago, would be good for the Muslim women today.

How effective is it to preserve these laws of the past to engage our future?

Can these draconian unjust laws ensure the liberty of our women?

What values do we embody as a community? There was a time when preservation meant saving something here or there. But those days are gone!

Are the laws contained in the MMDA a part of our heritage? Is it our only link to our identities and legacies?

Have these laws made us who we are today?

Our continued refusal and unwillingness to acknowledge these outdated laws have frozen much of our faith to a 7th century dogma. Our rush to blame, shame and obstruct the very few who call for reform and change undermines religious freedoms this country has always offered us.

I have watched with great dismay the compromises that we continue to make in the name of religious sensitivities. If we continue to fail to embrace changes and silence those Muslims who call for change, it will become nearly impossible for Muslims embrace a pluralistic nation.

Moderate Muslims have a crucial role to play in facing this problem head on and promoting a real and honest dialogue—free of political correctness and comforting lies—about the true nature of political Islam that thrives on the opression of women.

Our denials and failure in taking full responsibility to discuss these debilitating issues within our community, has prompted a national outcry and call by certain others, outside of the community, in some instances to viciously attack us. The time has come for us to rally around and promote secular liberal values and human freedoms.

A Muslim Round table

The Sectoral Oversight Committee on Women and Gender has recommended that a Constitutional Amendment be drafted to repeal Article 16(1) of the Constitution.

Article 16 (1) holds that – “Notwithstanding any inconsistency with the preceding provisions contained in Chapter III of the Constitution which concerns Fundamental Rights (FR) {Art. 10-15}, “all existing written and unwritten law shall be valid and operative.”

This means that such written and unwritten laws that existed prior to the promulgation of the Second Republican Constitution of 1978, the Committee observed, cannot be challenged in Courts including the Supreme Court in the instance of the violation of Fundamental Rights.

The Committee stated the proposed Constitutional Amendment seeks the abolition of personal laws, specifically the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act, No. 13 of 1951 as Amended, which allows and provides for child marriages.

This is grave news for Muslims who oppose the repealing of their personal laws. For a while now the Muslims in Lanka have experienced unexpected threats and challenges. From Digana, to Aluthgama, Minuwangoda to Kandy,we have held tight to the people around us and hoped for a political leadership in our country that enables us to build trust, that will make us safer and secure.

The government must conduct a wider study with experts, instead of succumbing to political gain and slogans and appeasing the calls of a few of the base on issues of repeal and reform.

The polarizing environment the country must be considered. More than laws, what we Lankans need is to learn how to speak to each other and balance the call for empathy.

As many writers have pointed, repealing Muslim personal laws overnight will be a tragedy of epic proportions. In a hate filled environment as we are in now, this will be a blow to Muslim person hood, citizenship and dignity

The process must be gradual.

We must know what provisions of the Muslim personal laws that are not compatible with our common laws are.

These must be discussed with a cross section of Muslim civil society leaders and religious actors and very particularly women. Justice must not only be done but seem to be done.

The cake for all to eat…..

During his inaugural address to parliament Justice Minister Hon. Ali Sabry roused us all to action. He said we must all reject “Jathi Wadaya” and promote “Jathikavadaya.” He spoke about one united Sri Lanka and shared with us the vision of the President for safety and dignity for all Lankans. And he concluded by saying- “let’s create an ‘Inclusive Nationalism’ and make a cake for all of us to eat.”

For Muslims participating in the baking of the cake will be easy. But the question remains as to whose ingredients will be accepted and whether the cake will be divided justly and equally?

Mr. Sabry is a Muslim and is no stranger to Muslim sentiments. Religion and rituals rank high in Muslim life. Any prospect of taking away their freedom to practice their religious laws (Sharia law) will break the spirit of the community.

Even though Minister Sabry must be bound by cabinet decisions, repealing the Muslim Laws will create much pain and uncertainty for the Muslims.

The Muslims need to be coached up and they need to be educated about what the heck is going to happen to their personal laws.

The government must bear its soul on these amendments whether to choose to call it reform or repeal!.

The Minister has a sacred duty to summon the heads of Muslim civil society, religious leaders, rights groups, victims – particularly women, to look into the impact of the proposed changes particularly if it is to repeal the Muslim personal laws.

The psychological aspects of a repeal of the Muslim Laws, will be a blow to the community and the unity of our nation. Let our nation strongly enshrined in Buddhist virtues, be known for its commitment to justice, equality and compassion.

Changes are needed, but we can’t win the battle and lose the war.

*Soraya M. Deen,  is a lawyer, community organizer and an award winning international activist. She focuses on countering violent extremism and deconstructing Received Theology by educating and empowering women to action.  She is the founder of the Muslim Women Speakers Movement and Author of SERVE: A Call to Muslims,  She is also the President and co-founder of the Interfaith Solidarity Network, one of the largest interfaith organizations in Los Angeles.