Sharia Law has been recognised by a British court for first time after a Judge made a landmark divorce ruling which could change the way Islamic marriage and divorce works in the UK.
The High Court ruled that an estranged couple's Islamic faith marriage, conducted in a ceremony called a nikah, does fall under British matrimonial law despite it not being legally recognised as such.
It means Nasreen Akhter will be free to bring her case to the divorce court and claim her share of the assets of her marriage where she previously would not have been able to.
In the high-profile case Mrs Akhtar and her businessman husband Mohammed Shabaz Khan were deemed to have a valid marriage.
The Judge said the union should be recognised because the couple, who took their vows in 1998, lived as man and wife, introduced each other as such and had expectations similar to a British marriage contract.
A report commissioned by Theresa May when she was Home Secretary revealed earlier this year that many women in Islamic marriages do not realise they have no legal protection under UK law unless they have a second civil ceremony alongside the nikah.
Under Sharia law women often have to appeal to Sharia councils, largely made up of men, in order to be released from their union and some have to make concessions in order to do so. Men are not obligated to do the same.
In the High Court case Mrs Akhtar's husband Mr Khan sought to block her application for divorce in the UK court on the basis that they were never legally married.
But Mr Justice Williams decided that the marriage was "entered into in disregard of certain requirements as to the formation of marriage".
He said the marriage was therefore "void" and that Mrs Akhter is entitled to a decree of nullity. If he had ruled it was a non-marriage she would not have been able to make a case in the British divorce court.
The judge heard that the couple, who have a Pakistani background, had lived in London, Birmingham and Dubai. They had taken part in a nikah ceremony at a restaurant in Southall, west London, nearly 20 years ago.
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