Many divorced women abandoned by their husbands turn up on Stone Town's streets on Friday to beg for money near mosques and well-off residential areas |
STONE TOWN, ZANZIBAR, 27 Apr 2006 (IRIN) - Bahati Kassim wakes
up at dawn each day to prepare mandazi, or doughnuts, which she sells along the
narrow, meandering streets of historical Stone Town, the main town in the
semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar.
The early Arab traders who settled at
the coast built Stone Town over 100 years ago. It is a cosmopolitan spice island
with a predominantly Islamic culture.
"I have to bake the mandazi for
sale every day to support myself and my children after my husband divorced me
three years ago," said the 35-year-old mother of four, "I have no hope uniting
with him again!"
Kassim earns at least 2,000 Tanzanian shillings (US $2)
a day, which she uses to buy food and school supplies for her children. She
rarely sees her former husband.
"After divorcing me, my ex-husband, who
has another wife, stopped supporting our children," she said. "I have reported
him, without much success, to the ministry concerned with gender, just to press
him to provide food and clothing for the children because I cannot manage this
burden alone."
Kassim is one of the many divorced women in Zanzibar,
which is home to about one million inhabitants. According to the island's
Ministry of Youth, Women and Children's Development divorce rates in Zanzibar
are rising.
The ministry's spokeswoman, Sharifa Maulid, said the
ministry had received complaints regarding lack of child support following
divorce. "Once the parents separate, it is the children who suffer," she said.
"Between January and March, we recorded 33 divorce cases," Maulid said.
"We normally summon male parents to try to resolve the conflicts. If we fail in
reuniting the couple, we then at least press the father to care for the
children. We sometimes succeed, and at times we fail."
Maulid said her
ministry had not yet tabled a law to deal with child support issues because
there were adequate Islamic regulations to guide the resolution of family
disputes in the island where 96 percent of its inhabitants are Muslim.
Matters concerning marital disputes and childcare are dealt with under
the Kadhi - Islamic Shariah (law) - courts. These courts, which were established
in the 1830s, are presided over by the Kadhis (magistrates) under Shariah.
It is under Shariah law that most couples enter into marriage. The
numbers of civil marriages are negligible in Zanzibar, and are done in the
regular courts or regional administrative offices.
Currently, only
Islamic Shariah is used in divorce matters in Zanzibar, while criminal and civil
cases are heard in the country's regular courts. However, regular courts can be
involved in divorce cases when the Kadhi courts have failed. There are 10
Kadhi's courts in Zanzibar.
Divorce is permitted in Islam as a last
resort when all other avenues of dispute resolution have been exhausted.
Normally, either partner has the right to seek divorce, although under Shariah,
it is the man who concludes divorce or who issues the divorce certificate to the
woman.
In a bid to curb the rising divorce rate in Zanzibar, the Kadhi's
court is now seeking the enactment of a divorce legislation to be applied
concurrently with Islamic regulations governing divorce.
According to
Kadhi Sheikh Omar Said, more than 95 percent of the 1,753 marriage disputes
brought before the court in the last two years had culminated in divorce, with
most of the couples involved ranging from the age of 20.
Zanzibar's
director of public prosecution, Othman Masoud, linked the rise in divorce cases
in Zanzibar to increasing awareness of individual rights, especially women's
rights.
"In the past, there were few divorces in the society, as many
women did not know their rights - they were suppressed," Masoud said. "But now,
the number of women who know their rights has gone up."
One unfortunate
result of this, he added, was that the number of divorce cases had also
increased.
"Everybody in the society must take the responsibility of
making sure divorce cases are reduced, mainly by advocating for the religious
teachings in marriage," Masoud said.
He said the introduction of a law
governing divorce would not solve the problem because divorce was a human right.
However, women like Kassim and their children continue to lead a difficult life
in the absence of divorce legislation that would guarantee them support when
marriages break down.
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