The demand of women activists for enactment of post-divorce maintenance in the MMDA of Sri Lanka: an Islamic perspective

Abstract

Islam explicitly emphasizes the post-divorce maintenance for divorced women. Nevertheless, the MMDA (Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act) does not have any provision to provide the post-divorce maintenance. Consequently, the Qāḍīs face difficulties in defining the period and quantity of divorced women’s maintenance. Therefore, the women activists in Sri Lanka under the patronage of the MWRAF (Muslim Women Research and Action Forum) lobby for enacting the provision of post-divorce maintenance (mutʿah) in section 97 of the MMDA to be provided to the divorced wife whether the divorce is initiated by the husband or wife if there is no marital fault on the wife. Hence, this study aims to analyse the demand of the women activists in Sri Lanka drawing on the secondary data such as the Qur’an, the Hadith, the literatures of the prominent jurists and the books written by the women activists in Sri Lanka. The findings of this study reveal that the post-divorce maintenance is a marital right of women emphasized by the Holy texts. Accordingly, this study recommends the relevant authorities to enact the post-divorce maintenance in the MMDA. However, the women activists’ demand “to pay the mutʿah to wives even though the divorce was initiated by wives” is intricate as it is unviable and contradictory to the opinions of the jurists.