KUALA LUMPUR, March 8 — Women’s group Sisters in Islam (SIS) revealed today that the number of clients seeking divorce through “fasakh” more than doubled at its free legal clinic Telenisa last year.
According to SIS, it received 137 clients seeking fasakh in 2017, up sharply from the 62 the year before, which itself was already more than double the 27 in 2015.
Fasakh, where the wife seeks divorce via court petition, is one of the divorce methods available in Islam.
Launching the 2017 Telenisa statistics and findings report in conjunction with the International Women’s Day today, SIS advocacy, legal services and research manager Shareena Sheriff said the cases the service handled increased to 711 in 2017 from 524 in 2016.
However, she said that despite an increase in awareness among women of their rights, the Islamic justice system remains “lackadaisical and inconsistent” in its judgments.
“As a result, many of the cases that Telenisa handles get caught at the Shariah Court level for years, causing and often prolonging unnecessary trauma to the women,” Shareena told the press.
Last year, SIS told Malay Mail in an interview that more Muslim women were seeking divorce from their husbands due to domestic violence.
According to the statistics released today, domestic violence made up 24 per cent of the reasons given by the clients for the breakdown of their marriage, the highest.
This was followed by infidelity (21 per cent), communication (16 per cent), and maintenance (14 per cent).
24% of the clients handled by Telenisa cited domestic violence as the main reason to initiate divorce. #telenisa #wanitabangkit #iwd #iwd2018 #WomensDay pic.twitter.com/bfPQdnQgnd
— Sisters in Islam (@SistersinIslam) March 8, 2018
Shareena also reiterated the complaints made by local civil society to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (Cedaw) committee last month in Geneva, Switzerland, alleging that Islamic family law has regressed even as civil law reform has resulted in more rights for non-Muslim women.
“Muslim women in Malaysia face a double discrimination as their rights are reduced in comparison with non-Muslim women, and on top of this, they face inequality with men under the Islamic Family Law,” she added.
Telenisa was established in 2003, and offer free confidential legal advisory clinic three times a week, and a mobile legal clinic.
