DETROIT — Many Muslim women feel their rights are being violated because they can’t get an Islamic divorce, often from men who were extremely physically abusive.

Not all Muslim women experience trouble getting an Islamic divorce and religious divorce is also an issue outside the Muslim community. 

To many women, an Islamic divorce can be more important than a civil divorce. It allows them to feel divorced in the eyes of God and is seen as a religious obligation.

Generally, Muslim men have nothing to lose by not getting a religious divorce, because, under Islamic law, they can have up to four wives. So, if a man is still religiously married to one woman, he can have three more Islamic marriages.

Women can only marry one man under Islamic law; so when their husbands won’t divorce them, they can’t get married again religiously and move on with their lives.

Women fear to even date when they’re still married religiously, because their reputations could be tainted.

Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Charlene Elder said when a man in court openly says he will grant the divorce and then he doesn’t grant it, he can be held in contempt for having perjured himself.

“The key is trying to get somebody to admit it on the record,” Elder said.

She also said that sometimes the court will ask a man if he’s going to give his wife an Islamic divorce and when; and that he might say he will for example  within the year.

“If he doesn’t grant her the divorce in a year, that means he has perjured himself before the court and he can be held in contempt for that,” she said. “Men are required to care for the woman no matter what; and if you’re not going to divorce her, you are required to take care of her with spousal support.”

She added that if a woman is entitled to spousal support, the court could reserve additional support if it feels the husband is not going to grant her an Islamic divorce.

Both Elder and Wayne County Family Division Circuit Court Judge Kathleen M. McCarthy have met with Muslim religious leaders to discuss religious divorce.

If a man chooses not to divorce his wife religiously, an imam has the authority to grant it to the woman. However, this is not easy and some women have unsuccessfully gone to several imams asking for a religious divorce.

As a Wayne County judge, McCarthy has seen the impact not getting a religious divorce can have on woman. 

“The wife is then unable to remarry,” she said.

Some men have agreed to divorce their wives religiously because of the threat of having to pay more in spousal support.

Elder said there are criteria women must meet in order to receive spousal support.

“There are rules,” she said. “Let’s say somebody is married for a year. You don’t really qualify.”

Because of the separation of church and state, judges are limited to what they can do in terms of pushing men to divorce their wives religiously. American law only recognizes civil marriages. 

“There is not much we can really do,” Elder said.