An Indian-origin Muslim woman divorced by her husband over phone has moved the court seeking recognition of her marriage as per the South African law.
Rhia Moolla has urged the high court in the nearby town of Pietermaritzburg to acknowledge her 'nikaah' to businessman Nazir Jamaloodeen so that she could receive maintenance and custody of their four-year-old son.
Moolla and Nazir were engaged in June 1996 but had to postpone their marriage to July 1997 after Nazir suffered serious facial and head injuries when a firecracker exploded in his face.
Moolla asked her husband to register their marriage according to South Africa's civil code before their 'nikaah.' "He said he wanted to register the marriage, but it would be done after the nikaah. He felt the religious marriage should take precedence over the civil marriage. So I accepted that," she said in her plea before the court.
When she reminded her husband to register the marriage as per the law, he refused. She told the court that her husband divorced her by uttering
'talaaq' over phone.
"I was returning from Durban with my father and our son. He called me to say that he was driving to Durban with his mother and aunt for a doctor's appointment and wanted our son to spend some time with him. An argument ensued and he ended our eight-year marriage by issuing an Islamic divorce with the words talaaq, talaaq, talaaq."
The court has adjourned the case until September next year. Meanwhile, a prominent Muslim academic, Prof Sulaiman Dangor of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, has called on Muslim organisations and leaders to reach an agreement on Muslim marriages being registered as per the South African law.
He said a Muslim Marriage Bill was currently being discussed but there appeared to be no progress because Islamic organisations differed in their interpretation of Muslim marriages.
"We need to reach some sort of an agreement so that women who are divorced according to Muslim marriages are protected. Muslim women appear to be the main victims when divorced according to Islamic marriages," he said.