DAMASCUS, Syria (North Press) – Calls by many young people in Damascus regarding the approval of civil marriage were met with rejection by government authorities and the objection of many social and religious sectors.
Recently, increasing calls for the approval of the civil marriage in Syria have collided with legal and social obstacles that prevent its approval.
Civil marriage is marriage that is not carried out in accordance with religious provisions and rules, but according to civil provisions related to the laws of the secular state.
Religious obstacles
Perhaps the suffering caused by the non-approval of civil marriage affected 25-year-old Sahar al-Hadi (pseudonym), a young woman who recently graduated from the Faculty of Information at Damascus University who is in a relationship with a Christian man.
Al-Hadi is facing objection from her family, and expressed her anger regarding the social customs and traditions and what she called the power of religion over the details of personal life.
“Nobody wants to understand that religion is mere conviction that we should not tie it to matters of our personal life and our future,” she said.
“We decided to escape to Lebanon and to get married there, but the economic conditions, incidents that took place there, and personal issues pushed us to abandon the idea now,” she added.
In March, Syrian Minister of Awqaf (Religious Endowments) Dr. Mohammad Abdulsattar al-Sayyed said, “Damascus will not accept civil marriage in Syria,” in response to calls for the approval of this kind of marriage across the country.
“Let everybody know that our law is governed by Islamic law, church laws, and other sects, and there will be no civil marriage in our country,” al-Sayyed said during a symposium held by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor.
Optional marriage
Challenges facing the supporters for the approval of civil marriage are that it is classified in Islamic law and Syrian law as a “void” marriage, and this is why the conservative class of Damascus refuses the approval of such a marriage, according to observers.
Supporters of this marriage assert that they do not demand that it be approved as a replacement for religious marriage; rather, it should be optional between those who want their marriage to be civil and those who want a religious one.
“We do not demand that civil marriage substitute religious marriage; rather, it must be optional,” university student Hussam al-A’idi (a pseudonym) said.
“Married couples should maintain the freedom to choose the way they want to marry, whether the civil or religious way,” he added.
“The approval of civil marriage in Syria is necessary, since it creates real harmony among all religious and ethnic communities in Syria,” al-A’idi believes.
“Civil marriage will be a gate to fulfill more social harmony between all Syrian communities,” according to him.
He pointed out that intermarriage relations between different religions and sects in Syria “will strengthen the bonds of social relations and increase social rapprochement between them.”
Legal refusal
“Syrian law, despite being secular, invokes Sharia law, especially in marriage, divorce, and inheritance issues,” Damascus lawyer Lin Ali (pseudonym) said.
The second paragraph of Article 48 of the Personal Status Law stipulates that the marriage of a Muslim woman to a non-Muslim man is “void,” and any discussion regarding the approval of the civil marriage must be accompanied by a change in many articles of the Personal Status Law that is already based on Sharia (Islamic) rulings.
The lawyer believes that since civil marriage is void in the Syrian law, then its effects are also void.
“This means that the civilly married couples will not have the right to parentage, recording their marriages and births in the Syrian departments, and the children will be deprived of citizenship, even if this marriage takes place outside the country,” she added.
The lawyer expressed her belief that “such a matter needs more time to plant a culture of pluralism and accept the ideas and opinions of the other.”