Social activist Shreen Abdul Saroor says that if the Muslim marriage laws are changed, it would put an end to the ultra-privileged Muslim man.
She said, “According to the Muslim laws the men are given unlimited powers and they even possess the right to give their children in marriage. In fact, according to the Muslim laws as it is not mandatory to register the marriage, not just four, but they can marry any number of times. All decisions are taken by, implemented etc, all by men. Hence, these laws need to be changed.”
She charged that it is not the Muslim community that opposes the abolition of these laws, but just the Muslim men.
The reason the Muslim men oppose the abolition of these laws is because then they would lose these extensive privileges, she said.
She also noted that Sri Lanka is a democratic socialist republic and not a Sinhala republic and the majority should accept the rights of the minority.
She pointed out that there are issues in having one country one law, but instead it should be corrected to one country one judicial system.
Expressing her views further she said, “There could be numerous types of laws in addition to Muslim laws, Thesavalamai laws and also civil laws, criminal laws and land laws etc. Hence, what is most appropriate is to incorporate all these laws into our judicial system. Except for the nationality or community based laws all other types of laws are already functional in our judicial system. Hence, what needs to be done is to incorporate all these laws into our judicial system. However, the issue today is that some of these laws don’t function in that manner. Who implements these laws? Who is responsible for them?” she questioned.
(Mirror)