Seminar on Sharia Law and the Children Act
22 November 2011
18.30-20.30 hours
Brockway Room, Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL
One Law for All will host a seminar to explore the terms of the Children Act and whether these are compatible with the tenets and practice of sharia law. It will look at the protections provided to children by the provisions of the Children Act and ask if children in Britain, by virtue of their parents’ religion or culture, are at risk of being denied these protections. In addition, One Law for All will provide information on Catholic Canon Law and how this has been used to facilitate the continued abuse of children in Catholic institutions. Speakers include: Sue Cox, Survivors Voice Europe; Anne Marie Hutchinson, Dawson Cornwell Solicitors; Maryam Namazie, One Law for All; Diana Nammi, Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation; and Yasmin Rehman, Chair of the Board of Trustees of Domestic Violence Intervention Project. The seminar will be chaired by Anne Marie Waters, One Law for All.
Entry fee: £8 Statutory organisations; £5 individuals; £2.50 student/unwaged
Please complete the below booking form in block letters and post back or email to the address below along with payment before conference. If you are sending a cheque after 10 November, please also email the form to us so that we can add you to the registration list. Please note that registration can also be done on the day from 18.00 hours but pre-registration is preferable.
For a booking form, click here.
Is this about stopping Sharia Law being used in the UK for cases other than domestic? I personally don’t think it will ever become part of Britsih Law!
Oops! I meant British!
The problem is that sharia courts and tribunals may be used to resolve issues of child residence and contact (’custody’ and ‘access’ have not existed in English/Welsh law since 1991) and may have the force of law under the Arbitration Act. Sharia law does not prioritise the welfare of the child, or, I think, even mention it. The risk is that many children of Islamic parents will be outside the protection of the Children Act 1989 when it comes to private family disputes. This must be resisted.
Note; I refer to English/Welsh law because Scots law is slightly different. although it embodies the same principles.
Now let’s see… This is what I recall about sharia law and children’s rights.
(1) It is forbidden to commit infanticide.
(2) However, it is not a sin to murder your own children or grandchildren. [No, I don't understand how these two fit together; I'm just reporting what I've read.]
(3) Parents are encouraged to use corporal punishment. In particular, they must beat a ten-year-old who doesn’t say his prayers, and a fifteen-year-old who won’t go to the mosque must be “beaten until he cannot stand”.
(4) A father has no duty to provide for an illegitimate child. That is completely the mother’s financial burden.
(5) A stepfather has no duty to provide for a stepchild. Even if he marries a widow, he is not obliged to bring her deceased husband’s children into his home.
(6) Adoption is technically forbidden, although fostering is allowed. I don’t know how this works out in practice.
(7) In the case of a divorce, the priorities are: (1) Islam; (2) the father and sometimes (3) the mother. The child is never directly consulted about residence. In practice, the law is:
(a) If either parent is not a Muslim, the children are immediately granted to the other.
(b) Religion being equal, all boys over seven and girls over nine are given to their father. Domestic violence, etc., are not valid considerations.
(c) Children below this age are given to their mother. However, they will be taken to straight to their father if any of the below occur.
(i) They reach the stated age.
(ii) The mother remarries.
(iii) The mother is unable to care for the children, e.g., through illness, or because she is of unsuitable character, e.g. doesn’t wear a veil.
(iv) The mother leaves the house (as this means she is not caring for the children). In practice, this means she is not allowed to go out to work, so she is entirely dependent on payments from her ex-husband or the state.
(v) A female relative of the father is willing to care for the children without payment, e.g., if he remarries and tells his second wife to look after his first wife’s children, or if his mother steps in. In this case the mother is not strictly forbidden to keep the children, but the father is not obliged to send her any upkeep; and since she is not allowed to work (see above) and the state is not supposed to pay if the father could be doing it, this effectively means she can lose the children if her husband remarries.
Hi Diana,
I’m impressed by and interested in all this information you’ve researched.
But I’d just like to be sure I understand your Point 3: Am I right in thinking that you’re saying ONLY BOYS are expected to pray (at 10) and attend the mosque (at 15)on pain of beating?
This fits with my personal experience of working with numerous adult, graduate Muslim colleagues from a huge varity of backgrounds in Tower Hamlets: only the guys – even the ones who drank beer on the quiet and (shhhh!) enjoyed an occasional secret bacon sandwich – went along to the Friday prayer sessions which the college facilitated in a basement room, as the closest mosque was rather a long walk away.
And when I asked the women, who had become friends, about whether they EVER went to Friday prayers, or even attended mosque, they all said that this stuff was just for the men – women don’t have to go.
BUT, as we’re now only too well aware, the women ARE expected to comply without question when their father/brother/husband dictates terms on behaviour (like going out to a film or theatre), marriage, education, career (if this is even a consideration!) and children’s upbringing.
SO – no ’spiritual’ sustenance for the girls (and the grannies!) but established acceptance, throughout British Islam (as worldwide) that women are simply possessions of the men. And, if they’re REALLY lucky (and sufficiently charming, intelligent, attractive and manipulative) their brothers/fathers/husbands MAY allow them to live a relatively independent life.
At the same time, they are ACTIVELY discouraged from developing ANY real knowledge of the Koranic texts (apologies for the old Brit Imperial spelling!) One really brilliant and effective young woman I knew, from a pious Muslim family, told me she had memorised the Koran in Arabic – but had absolutely NO understanding of the language. She had simply learnt all those thousands of words and phrases by heart from the sheer sounds.
This has always seemed to me to be absolutely parallel to the way the 15th Century Catholic church fought to avoid translation of the Bible from Latin into the vernacular – so the unlettered vast majority of the people simply repeated meaningless phrases of response to the Mass – and believed they were damned as sinners from the moment of conception. But, at least, the men were just as damned as the women!!
Although I’ve been fortunate enough to know some highly intelligent and relatively enlightened Muslim scholars, I despair for Islam. And I despair even more its advance into the now dissolute ‘West’, where we seem to have abandoned the hard-foughtfor values of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment.
THE “sharia” LAW IS SIMPLY DISGUSTING !
we need to protect children . children are children and they should not be labeled as muslim children or should not be given anyother identification.Thanks Maryam and your supporter for this wonderfull service for humanity .
To those who think Britain is immune to Sharia Law undermining its laws…Iran, Egypt and many other countries earlier inspired by British secular laws have already been devoured in case of Iran and undermined in case of Egypt. Combined with arson attacks on newspapers like Charlie Hebdo, assassinations of filmmakers like Theo Van Gogh, and publishers of the Satanic Verses in Japan and botched assassinations in Italy and Norway, with military attacks like 9/11, 7/7, Madrid, embassy invasions and hostage takings, embassy burnings of all Scandiavian states representatives in the Middle East by Iranian and Syrian state operatives and proxies etc etc. Britain definitely needs to be in war defence mode against Islamic Imperialism and its Sharia Law, which mostly resembles worst kind of military tribunals of worst kind of misogynic-gynocidal-genocidal military juntas. As late as two days ago, a British lady told me she had self-censored a paper due to fear for Islamic attacks…I just suggested she should show courage and demand protection by the liberal democratic state of Great Britain and publish her paper. Would Churchill allow Nazi Law be practiced in Great Britian? The simple answer is no. So should we defend Churchill’s and all the fallen soldiers legacy by rejecting Sharia law out of our borders ASAP, please.