WomenGateway - Al Wefaq: alternatives could fill the gap of the absence of family law for Shiite

Article by-Suad Hamada (Women Gateway)

The largest parliamentary bloc is pushing for reformation of judiciary system through amending and drafting of laws. Al Wefaq Shiite Opposition Bloc will opt for such move as alternative to a family law to regulate operations and judgments at Jaffary courts. The bloc and Shiite scholars rejected last year the governments plan to push for a law out of fear of being gradually forced to stop Shariah judgments and move to manmade legislations. Bahrain endorsed last year a family law covering Sunni courts, which that clashes with struggles of activists for a law for all Bahrainis regardless of their sects.

“I know we don’t have a law for Jaffary courts, but isn’t a big issue if we are seriously dealing with issues that cause marital problems,” Head of the Bloc, Khalil Marzooq, told the Women Gateway during the UN House celebration to mark the International Women’s Day. According to Marzooq with better legislations to offer citizens more rights and facilities, violence against women and marital problems could be eliminated. He said that it is very hard to exclude unemployment, housing, education and other matters affecting the lives of people from marital problems, so dealing with them is more important than the family law.

Marzooq refused to accept that his bloc was behind the rejection of the Shiite part of the family law. He said that his bloc was clear that the acceptance could be generated if there will be good assurances such as constitutional power that the law wouldn’t be amended by lawmakers after its drafting by trustworthy Shiite scholars.

Marzooq acknowledged the existences of issues at courts and highlighted that his bloc is working to solve them. “We are pushing for the approval of our proposal to amend the judiciary authority law to improve the selection conditions of judges, judgements and neutrality. We are also waiting the approval of another proposal tabled by Al Wefaq to allowed scholars to become lawyers as they are more aware of Islam,” he explained.