Social work, family welfare, and Muslim personal law in South Africa

Abstract

Muslim Personal Law is a branch of Islamic Law (sharīʿah) that regulates family life in Islam including marriage, divorce, custody and maintenance arrangements. In South Africa, the recently published draft Muslim Marriages Bill proposes the implementation of this code through the country's secular courts. If enacted, the statutory practice of Muslim Personal Law will intersect with social work and welfare services, in particular family welfare because of a shared focus on the family and family well-being. This will bring new challenges to practitioners in providing multicultural services to Muslim clients in the context of the religious code that regulates their family life. This article explores the proposed practice of Muslim Personal Law and challenges for family welfare service delivery in this environment. It reflects on the history and communal practice of Muslim Personal Law in South Africa and examines its intersection with the secular welfare sector as a space for practitioners to facilitate culturally sensitive and equitable services to Muslim clients, especially women, within the framework of the proposed legislation.

Keywords:

• Islamic law
• sharīʿah
• family welfare
• multicultural practice

Acknowledgment

The author would like to thank Professor Azizah Al-Hibri, founder and chair of KARAMAH: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights and Professor Emerita at the T.C. Williams School of Law, University of Richmond as well as Rashida Manjoo formerly from the Harvard University Human Rights Program and current UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women for past valuable inputs on contents of this paper.