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Aina Khan features in The Telegraph discussing the rise of shariah marriages and polygamy fears (3 July 2015)

Date: 03/07/2015
Duncan Lewis, Main Solicitors, Aina Khan features in The Telegraph discussing the rise of shariah marriages and polygamy fears

Aina Khan, the Head of the Duncan Lewis Islamic Law Department featured in The Telegraph on the 3rd July 2015 discussing the rise of Sharia marriages in the UK and the polygamy fears prompted by them.

With the rise of Sharia marriages in Britain, Aina Khan spoke to the The Telegraph regarding the issue of polygamy sometimes found in these cases.

The Telegraph stated;

”The UK has seen a surge in sharia marriages with many of them involving polygamy.

A lawyer dealing with cases claims there are now up to 100,000 such marriages mostly involving young Muslim men - which are not recognised under UK law and leave women without full legal rights.”


Aina was quoted in the article saying;

London-based solicitor Aina Khan specialises in cases of Sharia law and told the Times: "Probably a quarter of all the couples I see involve polygamy issues. There has been a high rise in recent years because people can have a secret Nikah (Islamic 'marriage' ceremony) and no one will know about it." She estimated that there were “potentially 100,000 Muslims without legal recognition”.

The original article can be found here.

Aina’s feature in The Telegraph coincides with her Register Our Marriage (ROM) roadshow, a series of national press conferences taking place throughout the UK aimed to inform and to tackle the serious and rapidly growing problem of unregistered religious marriages and suggesting solutions, including legal reform, Law Commission consideration and a widespread education campaign about legal pitfalls.

Aina’s “Register Our Marriage” (ROM) roadshow has already seen successful turnouts throughout the UK, including Bradford, London and Birmingham.

In her roadshow press conferences, Aina addresses the importance of registering religious marriages in the UK. It is estimated that around 80% of British Muslims aged under 30 are in unregistered marriages and that this is growing.

As a consequence, couples are left with no legal rights upon relationship breakdown or to inheritance and pension rights. Given the shocking deficiency in quantitative and qualitative data, intellectual paralysis has set in.

With this in mind, Aina Khan has initiated the “ROM” Project to lobby for an update of the Marriage Act 1949, which at present only covers Church of England, Jews and Quakers. This project enjoys Interfaith, Cross-Party and grassroots support and the ROM National Working Group is making strong inroads.

For more information on the Register Our Marriage Roadshows, please consult the event facebook page by clicking here.

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