Discursive Discourse on the Breakdown Theory of Divorce and its Application in the Shari’ah-Compliant Maldives Family Act of 2000

M. Z. M. Nomani

Faizan Mustafa

Mohammad Rauf

 

Abstract: The focus of this article is the Shari’ah-compliant Maldives family law‘s decennial working in fostering familial relations, gender justice, and children’s welfare. The discourse and diametric of divorce procedures are based on the discursive analysis of the Maldives Family Act (2000). The article analyses the phenomenology of the rise in divorce in the Maldives based on the content and right-based approach of the breakdown theory of divorce under Sections 23-30 of the Act. The family jurisprudence and narrative in Maldives stem from the British colonial statutes, Portuguese legal traditions, and foundational values of Islamic laws and modern legislative reforms. The Quranic and Shari’ah-based norms are grounded in the Constitution of Maldives (2008) and there are requirements of international feminist law, most notably the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) (1979). The diversity of factors relating to the dissolution of marriages vis a vis family dispute resolution by the Family Court and Magistrate Court offers insightful understanding of the real-world implementation of divorce law in general and break down theory of divorce in particularities of the Maldives. This article finds that a high incidence of divorce is primarily attributed to the breakdown theory of divorce recognised under Sections 23-30 of the Maldives Family Act (2000). In nutshell, marriage neither is the mega event of life nor is divorce a stigma in the Maldivian socio-legal milieu, and so are the frequent widower and divorcee re-marriages in Maldivian society. The application of the breakdown theory of divorce and its enforcement in the Maldives Family Act (2000) is a good example for refurbishing Shari’ah oriented as well as common law-based family laws across multicultural and heterogeneous jurisdictions of the world.