“I left my husband`s house and lived with my mother, who welcomed me after learning I had been beaten. But my husband refused to divorce until I went to the Women`s Health Centre two years ago. They found me a lawyer to file a lawsuit, and the court divorced in absentia two years later. An international wedding can be one of the most complicated marriages that need to be dissolved. Gary J. Gottfried, LPA will work with you to validate your international divorce. Our experienced international divorce lawyers will guide you through the process. We will help you understand the jurisdiction and where to file for divorce, the validity of a divorce in Palestine and any problems that may arise. Women in Gaza are often unable to finalize their divorce in court due to all the bureaucracy and legal procedures that accompany a law passed in 1954. Judges sometimes delay their decisions to give couples even more time to reconsider the divorce. Al-Faqeeh also disapproves of women as Islamic judges; the judge in Ramallah is his relative. “She`s great, but a woman who can`t divorce shouldn`t have the right to divorce other women,” he says. Brownson completes her review of court cases by interviewing contemporary Palestinian women – those of an age who may remember the term period and those younger who came into contact with Sharia courts – to better understand the social context in which these court cases took place and to understand them in comparison over time.
Through these interviews, she discovers that while divorce wasn`t frowned upon in the past, it`s become more difficult these days. One. Feminists have said the changes don`t go far enough because there are no clear limits to the financial compensation associated with divorce. They fear that conservative judges will still be reluctant to grant divorce to women. In addition, ineffective security forces rarely enforce court decisions. Women who turn to the courts find themselves entangled in endless legal proceedings and bureaucracy at the discretion of judges who, according to Ghonaimy, tend to be extremely patriarchal in handling cases. She believes that many loopholes in the law must be closed before women enjoy the same rights as men in the event of divorce. Women in the Arab world have gained ground in education and health, but inequality remains entrenched in most family courts, where Islamic law, or Sharia, is enforced. While countries like Tunisia and Morocco have introduced reforms, wives in other countries must still be represented by male guardians who sign marriage contracts. Men can divorce on a whim, while women have to prove the cause. And polygamy is only legal for men.
Rima found herself in a miserable situation: with no money to support her children, she depended on the help of her relatives. She asked for help from the Department of Social Development, which provides divorced women with a monthly stipend of $200. However, as she cannot provide divorce papers or proof of separation, she has not received anything so far. Polygamy: regulated by classical law. Both laws expressly allow a woman to contractually stipulate that the husband will not take another wife while he is married to her and to file for divorce on the basis of this provision if he violates the terms of the provision. (Muslim Palestinians in East Jerusalem cannot marry polygamously under Israeli law.) But Shamasneh believes the laws are the way they are because they were passed by men. On Talaq, standard reforms of classical Hanafi rules, as implemented in Egypt in the 1920s, were incorporated into the LFR; Out-of-court Talaq is valid, but registration is required. The same rules apply to judicial divorce as in the West Bank, except that a woman has the right to file for divorce for bodily harm and a husband does not have the right to file a petition for “discord and conflict”. The growing presence of female lawyers like Shamasneh has helped create more empathy for women going through divorce, custody or alimony hearings. When Shamasneh began practicing 15 years ago, women lawyers were rare. Today, women are sometimes more numerically represented than men at the courthouse. A 50-year-old teacher represented by Shamasneh said her lawyer “felt my pain and the injustice I was facing.” There is no civil marriage in the West Bank, so those seeking divorce must appear before religious courts.
The divorce rate in the West Bank and Gaza Strip has increased slightly over the past five years, from 1.5 to 1.7 divorces per 1,000 inhabitants. Judicial divorce: West Bank – see under Jordan. Gaza Strip – the same, except that women can file for divorce for injury and do not allow the husband to file a petition for reasons of “discord and conflict”. Under Sharia law, a husband can end a marriage by declaring his wife divorced, but a woman must prove that she was abused or neglected in court. In some countries, she can pay compensation to the husband to leave a marriage, in a divorce called “khula”. Legal action can take months or years. Obedience/maintenance: classic law. West Bank – see under Jordan.
The provisions are explicitly permitted in the West Bank under the JLPS, but are not commonly used. The LFR in Gaza refers only to provisions relating to polygamous marriage (similar to OLFR) and delegation of divorce. Judicial system: ordinary courts, including courts of first instance and courts of first instance with high courts competent in civil and criminal matters. The complexity of unifying courts and laws in the two territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip is one of the challenges facing the Palestinian Authority. In both regions, Sharia courts apply the Civil Status Law and use enforcement offices in the ordinary judicial system. A Sharia appeals court for the West Bank was established under the Palestinian Authority, which currently sits in Nablus, with Jordan retaining the head of the first Sharia and the courts of appeal for East Jerusalem. The Sharia Court of Appeals in the Gaza Strip is now also under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority. “If a woman can get divorced, she will drop it whenever she wants,” said Ahmad Qawasmi, a 21-year-old cosmetics salesman. “I wanted to get married, but now I think about it, because when my wife leaves me, people will say, `There`s a guy whose wife left him.
She pointed out that Gaza`s law requires women to wait one year, which is considered a probationary period for reconciliation. Only then can they take legal action and wait another three years for the long legal battle to be concluded. Now, Palestinian religious authorities have announced sweeping reforms to the divorce law that will make it easier for a woman to end her marriage. The changes take a big step forward in a society where many still believe that a woman should not have the right to separate from her husband.
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