Christians in the Holy Land shouldn't have to convert to Islam to get divorced

[xchrom]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/jul/22/christians-convert-islam-divorce-middle-east

"We cannot wait for politicians to sort things out, we have got to make a difference ourselves," concluded Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury, at the conference on Christians in the Holy Land co-hosted at Lambeth Palace with archbishop Vincent Nichols, the head of the Roman Catholic church in England and Wales.

As they explored ways to support Christians in the Middle East, I sent a query to Lambeth Palace asking why Anglicans in Jerusalem convert in order to get divorced. The reply from the press office was disappointing: "Each province has its own canon law, so the archbishop wouldn't have any jurisdiction over this in another province … "

Yet it is time that foreign churches, as well as sending money and priests to the Middle East, used their influence to reform family law in the region. Who will bring pressure to bear to modernise the dense muddle of Christian personal status laws in the Middle East? The majority of the 14 million Arab Christians there cannot divorce. Many are locked into dead marriages – or convert to another religion so they can divorce.

In Egypt, divorce is near impossible for Copts. Conversions to Islam for divorces have ignited underlying tensions with Muslims. Last May sectarian violence left 15 people dead and a church in flames in a Cairo suburb after a 23-year-old Coptic woman who had become a Muslim to end an abusive marriage was held in a church.

[MineralMan]

1. I don't know, but this doesn't seem like that pressing an issue.

Maybe it's a big deal, but I don't see it.

[msongs]

2. ah the never ending joys of religion nt

[rug]

3. There are other problems of a purely secular nature.

I was talking to a man who received a Shari'ah divorce in occupied Palestine. Now, decades later, he is now trying to obtain U.S. residency for his present wife. The only certified copy of his divorce bears the name of the Palestinian Authority whic ICE won't recognize. Therefore, no legal U.S. status for his wife.

[ZombieHorde]

4. Batshit crazy. The whole thing is so absurd. nt

[sudopod]

5. Anglicans can't get divorced?

King Henry must be laughing as he sizzles, and God is an iron.

[ButterflyBlood]

6. Interesting, reminds me of Israel's horrible laws on marriage

Israel doesn't have marriage in civil law, only religious. It'll recognize Christian and Muslim marriages, but not Jewish unless Orthodox, and they won't perform interfaith marriages. A Jew therefore in Israel can't marry a Christian or Muslim unless they do so in that church or mosque, which can create some other issues depending on the branch of Christianity or Islam.

However it gets even worse, if such a mixed-marriage does occur, this means that any children from it are not recognized as Jews even if raised that way (they're called "bastards" and this is even a legal term.) This even applies to children born out of wedlock to two Jews. And they can't get married in a valid Jewish marriage if a "bastard". If a Jew in Israel marries a non-Jew, and the children of that marriage are raised as Jews, they still can't marry a "full" Jew in a recognized wedding. In most countries this wouldn't be a big deal as a Reform rabbi would certainly marry them, but the Rabbinate recognized by Israel is very Orthodox-dominated and won't recognize Reform rabbis. In fact there are people in Israel considered bastards because of mixed marriages over three centuries ago.

There is one loophole: Israel will recognize foreign marriages, religious or civil, so a Reform marriage in another country would be valid, or a secular marriage everywhere, supposedly there are a lot of "marriage tourists" to Cyprus for this reason. However the restrictions above to any children born of such a marriage still apply. And as there is no civil divorce procedure you can imagine how messy it is.