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Proposed MMDA reforms: Further delays in finalising bill 

05 Feb 2022

  • Bill to be tabled in Parliament in 1Q 2022: Mayadunne
  • Opposed to abolishing polygamy: ACJU
  • Disappointed in delays, polygamy issue should not derail bill: MPLRAG
By Skandha Gunasekara  Despite previous assurances from the Ministry of Justice that an Amendment Bill to the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act (MMDA) would be presented to Parliament by January this year, it is learnt that the Bill to be tabled in the House will be further delayed. This is despite activists urging the Government to expedite the much-delayed change to legislation. In October last year, Minister of Justice Ali Sabry PC speaking to The Sunday Morning assured that the MMDA reform bill would be presented to Parliament within three months. However, Ministry of Justice Secretary M.M.P.K. Mayadunne told The Sunday Morning that it would take more time. “I don’t know who said it would be in Parliament in January, I certainly didn’t say so. I believe it will be in Parliament within the first quarter of this year,” Mayadunne said, disputing the Minister’s comments. He said that while the first draft had been formulated, the process of getting the Bill to Parliament would require additional time. “The Bill is currently with the Ministry. The process is taking time to complete. For example, once we send it to the Legal Draftsman’s office, we will get comments which may need to be added to the Bill. Then after the Legal Draftsman’s duties are done, the final draft of the Bill needs to be sent to the Attorney General’s Office and the Attorney General may in turn have his own comments on the Bill and we may need to make changes to the Bill. The next step thereafter would be to get the approval of the Cabinet of Ministers. What we can assure is that the Bill will be in Parliament within the first quarter of this year,” Mayadunne explained.   The proposed Bill seeks to address the issues called for by human rights advocates and women’s rights groups including Muslim women’s groups such as the abolition of underage marriage of Muslim girls and allowing women to be appointed as Qazi judges, as well as the abolition of polygamy. The All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama (ACJU) said that it would accept reforms that did not contradict the direct principles of Islam and that the abolition of polygamy was not acceptable. “The ACJU has a very clear stance – reforms that do not contradict the direct principles of Islam would be acceptable to us. That is our stand. With the matter of polygamy there is an issue in abolishing it as it is a direct principle of Islam, so we have an issue here,” ACJU General Secretary Arqam Nooramith told The Sunday Morning. He went on to note that other matters such as the banning of child marriages were acceptable.  “The proposed reforms such as the age of marriage being increased – those are technical areas in religion because a child has to be an adult to get married, so we are agreeable to those,” he explained. Meanwhile, the Muslim Personal Law Reforms Action Group (MPLRAG) pointed out that it was disappointed at the failure of the Ministry to present the proposed Bill by January and that the issue of polygamy should not be a cause to delay the entire process of amending the MMDA. “We have basically been pushing for amendments to be brought in as soon as possible. We were expecting some news to come up in January as to where the process is right now.  We do understand that issues like polygamy might be something that either the committee or the Minister of Justice is deliberating given the debates. But our positions on polygamy have always been that the lived realities dictate what needs to happen in terms of the issues. We know that even in countries that have conditions for polygamy, Muslim women still face a lot of discrimination in those marriages. In terms of polygamy, the Government can’t use polygamy as the reason for postponing the Bill,” MPLRAG Co-Founder Hyashama Hamin said. Responding to the stance taken by the ACJU, Hamin said that polygamy was not a direct principle of Islam and in fact monogamy was encouraged in the Quran. “Our view on polygamy is that the Quran encourages monogamy. The evidence is very clear in the religious text itself that monogamy is what is preferred and for whatever reasons that polygamy was brought about, those are historic reasons. Those reasons are not applicable to our current context and that is because the Quran encourages monogamy and encourages equality in marriage. That is what we want brought about in the Bill.” She pointed out that the debate around polygamy was decades-long in the Muslim community and that it was seen in other countries that even with conditions, polygamy discriminated against Muslim women and children.  “These are debates that have been happening within the Muslim community for quite a number of years and the MPLRAG’s stance is that the lived realities, which is the impacts of polygamy on Muslim women and children, has to be kept paramount when considering the amendments that need to be brought in the Bill. Looking at countries that have very stringent conditions like Malaysia, the evidence is there that particularly children feel discrimination in polygamous marriages, even with conditions. We want polygamy abolished.”  The MPLRAG called on the Ministry of Justice to expedite the process of bringing the Bill to Parliament, stressing that each day it was delayed was another day a Muslim woman or child was discriminated against.  “But no matter what the debate is at the community level, it is up to the Government to ensure that fundamental rights are not being violated. Other amendments can’t be held hostage because there are debates happening within the communities. Sri Lanka still does not have a minimum age of marriage for Muslims. Those are fundamental guarantees for children. We also still don’t have women Qazis, which means women are discriminated against in becoming Qazi judges. There’s still discrimination in divorce. Muslim women can’t even sign their own marriage documents yet officially. These are all issues that are being stalled. Every day that goes by more Muslim women are facing discrimination, so we would most certainly like to see amendments brought in as soon as possible.”


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