| And they have to use that funny duck voice. And they have to wear green... |
In a major ruling governing the Shia community, the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court has stated that divorce in Shia sect can be valid only if it is pronounced in Arabic.
| And they can only demand jihad in Swahili. |
The ruling was given by Justice Shailendra Saxena in a revision petition filed by Riyat Shamim, a Shia woman. The high court held that the services of an agent could be taken if the husband has little or no knowledge of Arabic. The court stated that the divorce of petitioner Riyat Shamim was "invalid because the pronouncement was not made by her husband Syed Nabi in Arabic although Arabic-knowing people were available in abundance." The court, however, made an exception: "If no one speaking Arabic was available only then divorce could be announced in a language other than Arabic."
The two were married in 1976. The husband had pronounced divorce on January 15, 1993. On August 16, 2001 the court had partially accepted the petitioner's plea and had fixed a maintenance of Rs500 per month pending final disposal of the petition. The high court also stated that the pronouncement must be made in the presence of two reliable witnesses as was stated in religious books. The court ruled that the two lawyers who were present when divorce was pronounced could not be considered as witnesses.
| Okay, that's one thing they got right. |
In this case, the husband had pronounced divorce three times in a language other than Arabic and had not done so in the presence of two respected and independent witnesses. |