In what will undoubtedly be a MILESTONE in justice for Muslim WOMEN in
the United States, a Maryland appeals court has ruled a husband cannot
divorce his wife simply by saying three "I divorce thees," then walk
away with all their acquired wealth and property.
The precedent-setting decision is a welcome change to the way wives
can be treated when a marriage is ending and the wife faces a very
short end of the stick.
Perhaps in several decades the ruling might make its way into the
divorce "customs" of Muslim communities in other nations. But given
centuries-old Muslim pro-male practices that accord virtually NO legal
rights to women, maybe that's expecting too much.
But for starters, if "men" in countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq,
and Pakistan would stop stoning, burning, and beheading women in
"HONOR KILLINGS," some humanity, charity, kindness and enlightenment
might start to be squeezed into the behavior of Muslims everywhere.
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"Islamic Divorce Ruled Not Valid in Maryland"
"Custom Allowing Men to End Marriage With Oral Declaration Lacks 'Due
Process'"
By Ruben Castaneda
Wa****ngton Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 8, 2008; B02
After his wife of more than two decades filed for divorce in
Montgomery County Circuit Court, Irfan Aleem responded in writing in
2003, and not just in court.
Aleem went to the Pakistani Embassy in the District, where he executed
a written do***ent that asserted he was divorcing Farah Aleem. He
performed "talaq," exercising a provision of Islamic religious and
Pakistani secular law that allows husbands to divorce their wives by
declaring "I divorce thee" three times. In Muslim countries, men have
used talaq to leave their wives for centuries.
But they can't use it in Maryland, the state's highest court decided
this week.
The state Court of Appeals issued a unanimous 21-page opinion Tuesday
declaring that talaq is contrary to Maryland's constitutional
provisions providing equal rights to men and women.
"Talaq lacks any significant 'due process' for the wife, its use,
moreover, directly deprives the wife of the 'due process' she is
entitled to when she initiates divorce litigation in this state. The
lack and deprivation of due process is itself contrary to this state's
public policy," the court wrote.
The decision affirms a 2007 ruling by the Court of Special Appeals,
the state's intermediate appellate court, which also said that talaq
does not apply in the Free State.
Under Islamic traditions, talaq can be invoked only by a husband,
unless he grants his wife the same right.
According to the Court of Appeals' opinion, Irfan Aleem, who worked
for years as an economist with the World Bank, is worth about $2
million, half of which Farah Aleem is entitled to under Maryland law.
When Irfan Aleem tried to divorce his wife under the concept of talaq,
a sum of $2,500 was mentioned as a "full and final" settlement,
according to the appellate decision.
That amount was written into the marriage contract Farah Aleem signed
the day she married him in their native Pakistan in 1980, according to
the appellate decision. The contract was in accordance with Pakistani
custom. At the time, he was 29 and she was 18. The couple moved to the
Wa****ngton area in 1985.
"I don't even know how to express how happy I am. I am ecstatic,
relieved," Farah Aleem, 46, said yesterday.
Over the years, a lack of financial sup****t from her ex-husband caused
hard****p for her and her son and daughter, who are in college, she
said. "All I ever wanted was my fair share, not a penny more," said
Aleem, who lives in the Wa****ngton area, works full time for an
accounting firm and is pursuing an accounting degree at night.
At the direction of the judge who presided over the Aleems' divorce
proceedings, the couple's Potomac home was sold, and half the proceeds
-- about $200,000 -- went to Farah Aleem, said Susan Friedman, her
attorney.
Friedman said she thinks that Irfan Aleem, who retired in recent
years, invoked talaq to avoid paying Farah half of his World Bank
pension, which provides him with $90,000 annually, the attorney said.
"It will be very pleasant when [Farah] gets her share of that,"
Friedman said. "She's delighted about that."
Friedman said she will serve papers on the World Bank showing that the
original order from the Circuit Court -- that Farah Aleem is entitled
to half her ex-husband's pension -- is now final and that the bank has
to give her half.
Irfan Aleem, who is in his late 50s, lives in Pakistan, Friedman said.
His attorney, Priya R. Aryar, said, "We're very disappointed with the
decision. We think this could have adverse ramifications for a whole
bunch of people who reside in the D.C. area under diplomatic visas and
assume that their family law rights and obligations are governed by
the laws of their country of citizen****p."
A legal scholar and an Islamic leader said the appellate court's
decision was not surprising.
"For the most part, Muslims expected this kind of ruling," said Muneer
Fareed, secretary general of the Islamic Society of North America in
Plainfield, Ind. "The contrary would be a surprise to them. They do
not expect the U.S. legal system to give full recognition of talaq."
Julie Macfarlane, a legal scholar who is researching a book about
Islamic divorces in North America, said the decision was not
surprising. "There's no legal enforceability [for talaq] in U.S.
courts," said Macfarlane, a professor at the University of Windsor in
Canada.
http://www.wa****ngtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/07/AR2008050703592.html
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