In the course of researching the issue of the constitution in regard to another thread, I came across this interesting and rather controversial piece of information.

MARRAIGE.. It appears that 2 religions are using 'religious marriage' as a means of punishing their spouse who requests a divorce, and.. in some cases for fraudulent and malicious purposes.

The fraud relates to the abuse of the welfare provions, and the 'malicious' relates to the spouse concerned.

http://www.ag.gov.au/agd/WWW/flcHome.nsf/Page/Letters_of_Advice_Letters_Civil_and_Religious_Divorce_Civil_and_Religious_Divorce_Part_2

When a woman in the Jewish and Islamic faiths wishes to divorce her abusive husband... the law can deal with the civil aspects, but the problem comes when the religious divorce is not granted within the community concerned.
The ramifications of this are as follows:

1/ The applicant obtaining the divorce is not free to re-marry within her faith or community because in their eyes she is still legally married to the husband.
Don't take my word for this, after all, I'm just 'whacking a Mozzie' and even worse this time. 'whacking some Jews' as WELL.

2/ The divorcing spouse would need to re-marry outside their faith and community, which could result in serious psychological consequences.

QUESTIONS/ISSUES. Should the law.. Australian law, make it unlawful for a religious group (this would apply to Christians equally) to use 'religious marriage' in this way?

Personally, I believe it absolutely should.

MULTICULTURALISM Obviously there are implications for this. It would therefore seem clear to me, that any aspiring migrant be told that in Australia, our law prevails over any religious law in the area of Marriage. (among many other things would be migrants must be told..such as female genital mutilation is unlawful.. a crime)

DISCRIMINATION/HUMAN RIGHTS. Given that Australia subscribes to the notion of 'human rights' which include 'freedom to practice religion' and that Sikhs claim the right to wear their Kirpan, (Australia/Canada) and Hindu's the right to protect a 'sacred cow' (UK) ... can they claim abuse of human rights when Australian law prevents them from these aspects of their religious expression?

Always enjoy your posts BD.

My answer would be 'who cares'? If people want to live in communities based on ancient cults, then they have to accept the cult's rules and regulations I guess.

The government can't tell people how they should feel, if you don't like someone because they get divorced then thats up to you. Get a civil wedding with your next partner and get on with your life. Maybe have a think about how closed-minded religion can make people.

cheers

gw

"1/ The applicant obtaining the divorce is not free to re-marry within her faith or community because in their eyes she is still legally married to the husband."

This does contradict today's views on marraige, however its not such a simple issue.

The fault does not lie in the couple at the divorce point, but in what they have contracted to in the marraige: 'till death do us part'. Here, the terms of the marraige, not the terms required for a divorce, must be adjusted. Legally, one party has the right to refuse a divorce under the terms of the covenant the couple executed - which is a legal document and contract.

The second factor is that free divorce, with no impacting rules & conditions, has consequences - not just for the couple, but more so for their family and then the community at large, finally on the nation and culture as a whole. Here, the issue of marraige becomes extremely precarious, as seen in the stats of those nations where no laws apply for marraige or divorce in its actual dispencing.

One way is to make driving tests and marraiges subject to better and more honest criteria, and to thereby alter the marraige vows: if the divorce criteria should be made very simple - but this should be only in ratio of the marraige laws being made more testing - in allignment with what they are signing and what it onvolves.

One cannot have it both ways - a contract is a contract. Siting only the issues in a divorce and ignoring the marraige terms will not resolve this issue. Siting only the marraige laws and not the consequences of a divorce will also not assist. Ultimately, it alligns with the laws relating to a child and his parents, and this applies more than ever in today's contraception age.

Perhaps a 'P' license provision must apply for any couple contemplating marraige - and I can her many shouting no way - then don't drive cars either?

Hi GW and I-AM J

Not sure if you blokes are catching the main point here.. forgive me if misunderstand.

Imagine..... you and your wife are .. let's say Jewish. You marry in a religious and civil ceremony or.. a religious which is then lawfully registered civilly.

Ok.. sure, you say ur vows etc, but one party breaches the contract by committing adultery or abuses or.. you name it. The other aggrieved party wishes to divorce, but the 'offender' does not wish it and while they cannot refuse a civil divorce..they CAN refuse a religious one.

So..in the eyes of that community, they face 2 choices.

1/ Apostasy.. rejection of the community and their faith.
2/ Compliance and subjection.

So.. a total bastard of a bloke could use this threat of 'social alientation' against the wife within their community.. extended family.. etc as a tool to keep her as a kind of slave.

So.. MY point is... that Australian law MUST.. absolutely must over-ride religious law on the issue and further.. not entertain any if's but's or maybe's connected to the religious background of the couple. In fact.. I'd go so far as to make it an offense to try to evade the Law against an ex spouse. Civil divorce MUST by law provide an automatic religious divorce, whether Jew, Muslim,Hindu, Sikh or Christian.

Please read the link to see the background.

Polycarp,
Reading the link you provided, I was intrigued by the section on marriage.

The way I interprupt the matter of polygamous marriages is that if a person holds duel citizenship he could leave Aus and go to his old country get married to another woman and bring her here and the polygamous marriage would be recognized by us.

This raises some questions.

Are social security payments available to both his spouses?

What happens if he has a polygamous marriage when he applies for him and family to immigrate?

I realize that you intended this thread to be about divorce, but this intrigues me, especially after discussion some time back on polygamy.

Maybe someone can shed some light on the matters.

Banjo this is what happens

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b14_1215782328