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The New Nation - Bangladesh's Independent News Source
By V Radhika Sep 6, 2004,
11:51 Recently, the Ontario government in Canada announced that it would
review plans to use Islamic law to settle family disputes. While this was not exactly what
Homa Arjamand, Coordinator of the International Campaign against Sharia in Canada, and
other women activists wanted to hear, the fact that the government agreed for a review,
marks a minor victory. Activists like Arjomand and Alia Hogben of the Canadian Council for
Muslim Women (CCMW) would rather that the plan is disbanded altogether. On June 10, 2004, Attorney-General Michael Bryant said, "We are
looking at what the options are, aware of the fact that it (an institute that plans to
apply the Sharia law) will not be up and running till later this year..." The controversy arose after the Islamic Institute for Civil Justice
asked for the setting up of Islamic or Sharia courts in Ontario. This demand implies that
marriage, family and business disputes would be settled according to Sharia, a body of
laws and rules "inspired" by the Quran and not by the laws of Canada.
Arjomand and Hogben however, disagree entirely. Such courts, they
say, will be detrimental to women's interests; and there is no need for these when women
have access to a progressive Canadian legal system that ensures women's equality. They
also dismiss the contention of Sharia law proponents, that participation of women in these
proceedings will be purely voluntary. The activists argue that there is a high possibility of women being "If Sharia courts were to function here (in Canada)," says Arjomand, "many women will be socially and psychologically coerced into participating. To refuse would mean rejection by their families, the community, or worse." Arjomand marshals her experience as a transitional counsellor with
women particularly immigrant women and refugees, many of whom come from countries that
enforce Sharia law, to buttress this claim. This one-time professor of medical physics in
Iran was forced to flee her country; her family arrived in Canada in 1989 as refugees.
"But that was not reason to deny the Islamic Institute the
right to use the Arbitration Act", he said. © Copyright 2003 by The New Nation |
