Hello and welcome to the podcast from THP Solicitors. Our guest today is Ruby Tufail, a solicitor in our Family & Divorce department. Ruby specialises in all areas of divorce including advising Muslim couples on Islamic marriage and divorce in the UK, both regarding the Muslim ceremony and how to end a marriage under civil laws in England & Wales. So Ruby, let's start with talking about Nikah. Is Nikah recognised under English law?Thanks, Melissa, a really interesting conversation. Before I answer your question, I think it’s quite important to share with you the fact that over 3.9 million Muslims are living in the UK.Now firstly, let's go back, to what is a Nikah? A Nikah is a religious ceremony undertaken by a man and wife to bring them together in matrimonial harmony. There are some conditions to a Nikah:• there must be wilful consent from both parties• two adult witnesses to the ceremony• a legal representative or Wali, who is normally the father of the bride• and bridal gift to the bride from the groom, known as Mehr, which I will go into more detail about laterSo, is a Nikah recognised under English law? It depends on where the marriage took place. When you enter a Nikah ceremony in the UK, and providing you have met the full condition I have just outlined, your Nikah will be valid under Islamic law but unfortunately unless you have a civil legal ceremony you will not be legally married under English law and you would only be treated a ‘cohabitees’. By only undergoing a Nikah ceremony in the UK, couples are in effect denying themselves security and the other advantages that come from a civil marriage. So, my advice will always be, that when getting married, you should always have the civil ceremony first and then have the Islamic ceremony. I appreciate that most people would not wish to live together until the Islamic ceremony but by doing it this way you provide protection. Time and time again, I see clients who have had an Islamic ceremony and were promised a civil ceremony and it never happened.Now, this is where it becomes a bit complex. A Nikah will be recognised in the UK if you got married aboard in a country where Nikah is legal. I’ll give you an example. I was actually married in Pakistan, and I’ve only ever had a Nikah, but because I got married according to the law of the country where the ceremony took place, and it was registered. When my husband came to the UK, our marriage was recognised under UK law and we didn’t have to have a separate civil ceremony. Now in the event of a divorce where you have got married abroad, because your Nikah has been recognised under UK law not only would you have to have a divorce under Islamic law, you would also need to have a divorce under civil law as well which is obviously important.It sounds quite complex. Where you had your Nikah is really important and defines if you may need to have a civil marriage as well if you are living in the UK, as that determines if your marriage is legally recognised here. The key thing is, just to remember, if you got married abroad according to the law of the country, when you come to the UK your marriage will be recognised under civil law. If you got married in the UK under Islamic law, you need to have a civil ceremony to get the marriage rights that you would be entitled to.Moving onto methods of separation in Islam, there are a number of different ways that couples can get divorced depending on who instigates it.The two main methods are granting of the divorce by the husband, which is Talak. Talak is where the man unliterally gives a divorce to the woman with or without cause. However, he then has to pay the bridal gift, Mehr, as a financial settlement in full.I briefly touched on Mehr earlier. In Islam, when marriage vows are recited the husband gives his wife a gift which is known as Mehr as part of the marriage contract. Mehr is documented and in the event of divorce, Mehr is what would be paid as a ‘settlement’. Mehr is normally paid at the time of the marriage ceremony, sometimes it can be deferred. It can be nominal amounts or huge. Often people put in a small amount such as £10 or £100 as they are confident in a happy union and just want something nominal, and others have a large Mehr for protection in case things go wrong. There are normally lots of discussions about it before the ceremony. Now if the wife wants to get divorced in Islam it is called a Khula. Khula is where the wife can, without giving a reason, ask the husband for a divorce, however, the condition is that the wife is usually asked to repay the Mehr to the husband. There is no allegation of fault. In some instances, if they both agree, it can also be agreed that the wife does not need to repay her Mehr to the husband depending on the circumstances of the divorce.There are also two lesser-known ways of getting divorced. There is the Faskh-e-Nikah or Tafweedh-e-Talaq. Excuse my pronunciation!The ...
