UK government moves to simplify the wedding process have led to a surge in misinformation online about Muslim marriages that campaigners say puts women’s legal rights at risk.
The reform would shift the power to legally marry a couple from registered venues to licensed officiants.
For Muslim weddings, this would mean couples would no longer need to book an additional civil wedding if their chosen mosque is not registered, as long as the person officiating the wedding is licensed to do so.
The British charity Muslim Women’s Network UK has warned of inaccurate information about the reform circulating online that has led Muslims to believe that only a religious ceremony is required.
“This misinformation could leave tens of thousands of Muslim women believing they will be legally protected even if they enter into a religious-only marriage without having to take the additional steps to make their marriage legally valid,” said Shaista Gohir, chief executive of the charity.
“We know from years of supporting women that discovering your marriage has no legal recognition can be financially and emotionally devastating.”
The proposed reform would give couples more choices about where they got married and would help to lower wedding costs, said former justice secretary David Lammy.
“Weddings have not changed in our country for 200 years. We’re bringing it up to date,” Mr Lammy said last week, while still in office. “We’re opening up much more choices to where people get married. It will be the officiant who holds the wedding licence.”
He added that the change would make it easier for marriage partners who had different religions, or those wanting only a religious ceremony.
Muslim Women’s Network UK (MWNUK) which runs a hotline for British Muslim women seeking support for marital issues and domestic violence, blamed the government for the confusion.
“Government's communications failed to emphasise a crucial point: the proposed reforms do not remove the need to comply with the legal requirements for a legally recognised marriage,” it said in a statement.
“That message should have been central to every announcement about the consultation,” it added.
Women most affected
Muslim marriages that have not been legally recognised in the UK mostly affect women, who do not receive the automatic legal rights to financial provision.
A high-profile case was that of Nasreen Khan, whose Islamic marriage ceremony in 1998 took place at a restaurant rather than a registered mosque. Although Ms Khan had asked her husband for a civil marriage, this did not happen.
When she filed for divorce in 2016, her husband tried to avoid a financial settlement by claiming that the marriage had not been legally registered in the UK. The High Court initially took a sympathetic approach to Ms Khan, the Court of Appeal overturned the ruling.
Only around one in four women who contact MWNUK about their marriage have entered a religious-only marriage with a corresponding civil registration, the charity said.
The spread of misinformation “will have serious real-world consequences for Muslim women, causing them financial harm” the charity said in a statement.
“We are now concerned that some men may exploit this misinformation by falsely assuring women that a civil process will no longer be necessary because an Islamic marriage alone is legally valid,” it said.
“Equally worrying is that many women may genuinely believe they will be legally protected, only to discover years later that they have no legal rights relating to financial remedies or other protections arising from marriage,” it said.
