KUALA LUMPUR, March 8 — The variety of Muslims asking for unfastened prison recommendation on polygamy is rising, statistics from a felony medical institution operated with the aid of Sisters in Islam (SIS) has shown. Polygamy cases recorded on the Telenisa prison resource sanatorium rose from seventy five in 2016 to 106 in 2017, and 176 in 2018. The SIS said this was going on against a backdrop of weakening felony protection over the years for the current spouse, which has made it less complicated and less complicated for Muslim guys to take on greater wives. SIS programme manager Shareena Sheriff said many Muslim guys secretly have subsequent marriages by using going to the border of Thailand to skip Malaysian prison requirements that require those marriages to be validated in a Shariah court. Shareena said it turned into a weak spot of Malaysian regulation that Muslims who marry abroad are allowed to eventually sign in it in Malaysia while not having to first have it permitted in court docket. “So that is how those marriages remain mystery, they marry in Thailand, they arrive returned and secretly check in it,” she stated on the launch of Telenisa’s booklet on its 2018 records of cases it treated.
“In many marriages, the marriages are not even registered. When divorces take place, the status of the wife is as though they had been by no means married,” she delivered. According to Telenisa, instances of next marriages that went unregistered in Malaysia amounted to eleven.Four in line with cent of the 176 polygamy instances it handled in 2018, with affected better halves dropping their rights to the inheritance and matrimonial belongings while their kids are regarded as illegitimate. Shareena also pointed out the trouble of husbands either refusing to provide money to offer for the preservation or decreasing such price range for the spouse and kids from an earlier marriage, after taking on a new spouse. Out of the 176 polygamy instances at Telenisa in 2018, 15.9 in keeping with cent revolved on complaints of subsequent marriages with out the present day wife’s know-how, even as 15.2 in keeping with cent had been on subsequent marriages with out the contemporary spouse’s consent. Some of the modern other halves only found out years later that their husband had taken on extra other halves. Cases in which husbands gave no money to their present day other halves amounted to 9.7 per cent of the 176 instances, whilst 10.8 in step with cent stated their kids no longer obtain monetary provision from the husband. As for the remaining instances, 10.8 in line with cent had been on other halves being unhappy, while nine.7 in keeping with cent concerned absconded husbands, 7.Four in step with cent complaining of unjust rotation and nine.1 in keeping with cent concerned other lawsuits. Those who consulted Telenisa final yr on polygamy consisted of the primary spouse in sixty two of the 176 instances, the second one wife (41 cases), third wife (five cases), husband (two instances) and companion (37 instances). The Telenisa e-book also mentioned the unfair laws in Malaysia on polygamy, with SIS noting that the rights of the modern spouse have been an increasing number of chiselled away over the years with prison amendments in 1994 and 2006. The 1994 change allows for mystery polygamous marriages, by allowing the registration of unlawful marriages — that were entered into without the court’s permission — with the payment of a small best. Muslim guys who wanted to marry an extra wife previously had to reveal the wedding was each simply and necessary, however the 2006 change loosened it to either just or essential, with the danger of adultery with the aid of the husband additionally common as a necessary situation. The ebook with the aid of SIS additionally stated that Muslim men are not legally required to keep the same old of residing of their cutting-edge other halves, which SIS stated without delay contradicts the Muslims’ holy e book Al-Quran. The booklet also indexed the laws in other Muslim nations, inclusive of the ones which ban polygamy like Turkey, or together with in Indonesia wherein polygamous marriages requires courtroom authorisation upon fulfilment of strict regulations and that may most effective be concluded if the present wives agree. Laws in Muslim international locations like Egypt, Algeria, Bahrain, Jordan, Lebanon recognises the spouse’s right to divorce after the husband enters into subsequent marriages, even as Shareena noted that polygamy isn’t a circumstance for divorce in Malaysia. Among different things, the ebook by using Telenisa covers records on and problems of divorces, child custody, child renovation, in addition to belongings division or division of inheritance. Telenisa, which has been giving unfastened felony advice due to the fact 2008 on Islamic own family law and Shariah criminal offences, recorded a total of 576 customers in 2018. Deputy girls, family and community development minister Hannah Yeoh, who officiated the release of the Telenisa guide, these days acknowledged the importance of SIS’s paintings. Yeoh also introduced a pledge of RM20,000 to SIS to guide its paintings, with the budget to be from her allocation as deputy minister. Yeoh encouraged SIS to move on a national roadshow to give an explanation for and gift its data and findings in the Telenisa e-book to MPs and country assemblymen within the respective states, as Islamic topics is below the jurisdiction of kingdom governments. In conjunction with International Women’s Day, Yeoh additionally took the opportunity to well known on behalf of the government the paintings of NGOs consisting of SIS, Women’s Aid Organisation and Tenaganita. “I want to acknowledge your contribution to Malaysia, I assume Malaysians could be in a worse position if no longer on your efforts within the previous couple of a long time,” she stated.