Thread by @SBSisters

Thank you to everyone joining us for this evening’s webinar. SBS Director Pragna Patel explains that many women who have a religious only marriage find themselves ‘left high & dry’ after separation, by their partners, by their communities & by the state for allowing it to happen

https://twitter.com/SBSisters/status/1351587682149928963

Pragna Patel says weddings law is failing to understand minority women’s positions – it doesn’t understand the wider context in which minority women exercise choice. It’s often choice exercised in very constraining circumstances.

Pragna Patel: Minority women are shunted from pillar to post, with no one taking responsibility for their protection and justice, leaving them to regressive forces in our communities

Survivor Uzma describes the tremendous battles she has faced, after realising after a decade of marriage, that it had no legal status. She says: “I believed this marriage was for life. I was deceived. I was made to believe the mosque I was getting married in was registered."

After receiving a religious divorce by WhatsApp, Uzma was left homeless and separated from her 3 young children and now has to start her life from scratch. She has no legal rights to the finances acquired with her husband over 10 years

@GitaSahgal of @OneLawForAll says the ‘hostile environment’ & immigration controls work in tandem w/community pressure – men use the hostile environment & unregistered religious marriages to deprive women of their rights, and then to set the law against them.

@RehmanYasmin points out that women and children are left without rights not only when a marriage breaks down due to abuse, but also in cases where spouses die. Where the marriage has no legal status, what does this mean for women and children’s access to pension or inheritance?

@RehmanYasmin raises the issue of minority women of all ages being pressured into becoming 2nd or 3rd wives in religious-only marriages w/o any protection from the law or state – sharia courts are then their only redress but they offer no protection.

@YehudisFletcher in conversation w/@GitaSahgal says religious-only marriages not only mean Jewish women don’t enjoy ordinary state protection in divorce, but that any abuse that occurs is entirely managed from ‘within’ the community. No one from ‘outside’ is asking any questions

@GitaSahgal explains that in #AkhtervKhan the state specifically struck down a judgment where a woman was given her rights by the marriage being declared void, upholding the principle of civil marriage whilst also giving her her rights.

Uzma says she has been left dependent on the Govt & various professionals for her & her children's security but it is her husband who is responsible for her being in this situation. She says: “I want justice – if not for myself, I want to contribute to secure girls in the future"

Uzma says: I’m not the only one, there are a million other women who are still in abusive relationships, because they don’t have a choice – knowing if they leave they will not get anything. Women in their 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, who know they have no way out.

@RehmanYasmin: The British state is allowing alternative dispute resolution systems, allowing men to divorce by text, to send talaq by email. In Muslim majority countries these aren't recognised. They are making a mockery of both religion & the state & women & children who suffer

"Were talking about the reality of minority women’s lives, the consequences that flow from the deprivation of their rights. Minority women have struggled to get these issues out of the private sphere, but they're being pushed back by collusion btwn religious leadership &the state

Thank you to @MaryamNamazie for chairing today’s event, to the wonderful speakers @RehmanYasmin @GitaSahgal @YehudisFletcher & the incredibly bravery of Uzma. Thank you also to all those who joined us today & to those who stand with us in our ongoing struggle for women's rights

For those who could not attend today’s webinar, the recording will be made available shortly on YouTube via @One_Law_for_All