Multiculturalism and Religious legislation in Sweden

Abstract

This article deals with how the Muslim community in Sweden deals with matters of marriage and divorce. The field of divorces instigated by women is problematic in the Islamic law (sharia). In Muslim communities in western countries these divorces become even more challenging due to the lack of central Islamic authorities. Religious organizations’ right to marry couples (vigselratten) might create a false image of autonomy in family matters in general. Thus the difficulty for women to get acceptance for a divorce in the Muslims organizations, i.e. to get an Islamic divorce based on a Swedish legal divorce, could be caused by the possibilities for religious minorities to live in the margin of Swedish family law. Today there are Muslim women living in the so-called “limping marriages”, i.e., they are divorced according to the Swedish legal system and married according to the Islamic law. The consequences of this position is that remarrying could, in the minority communities in western countries, cause a social marginalisation for these women, and in countries with a Muslim majority it can result in punishment, as bigamy for women is regarded as a criminal offence.