The Star
Nation
Monday April 23, 2007

Muslim mums fed up with deadbeat dads

By PARVEEN GILL and LOH FOON FONG

PETALING JAYA: Muslim women across the country are facing difficulty in collecting child maintenance even after Syariah courts ruled that their former husbands are responsible for the welfare of their children.

Sisters In Islam (SIS) programme manager Norhayati Kaprawi said mothers were frustrated with these deadbeat dads because they had to prove that their ex-husbands had income.

“It is unfair to expect mothers to care for their children and locate their ex-spouses’ whereabouts at the same time.

“Even if they can prove that their ex-husbands have income, fathers still manage to find one way or another to escape paying child maintenance or alimony,” she said.

During the forum organised by SIS last Saturday, several women voiced their difficulty in getting alimony.

Some fathers run to another state, some pay when they like and some keep postponing the maintenance case while the children and wife suffer.

A 37-year-old mother of three said a Syariah court in Selangor had ruled that her husband pay alimony through monthly deduction from his salary.

Aware that a Syariah court ruling is only applicable within the state, she said her ex-husband fled to Terengganu to find a new job there and she did not know where he was now.

A 47-year-old woman said her ex-husband was ordered, among others, to pay RM800 monthly as alimony in 1996.

However, he only paid “as and when he felt like it” while she and her two children survived on sardines and rice on her nasi lemak sales.

A 39-year-old woman said she had been fighting for child maintenance for her daughter for the past 15 months.

“My husband is a well-known chief executive officer of a company but he does not want to pay alimony for our daughter. Until today, he has not paid a single sen for his own child.

“To make life difficult, every time the case comes up for hearing, his lawyers would inform my lawyers to ask for a postponement, saying he is willing to settle the matter out of court,” she said.

However, hardly any non-Muslim women returned to court to enforce the law when their ex-husbands failed to pay maintenance, said Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia law associate professor Noor Aziah Awal.

“It was likely due to the high cost of lawyers needed in High Court, which were not needed for Syariah court,” she told The Star.

This observation was based on her research on Enforcement of Maintenance Order for Wives and Children in Malaysia 2005.

“In 2002, out of 141 cases filed at the Seremban Lower Syariah court, 47 cases returned to court to enforce the law. At the Seremban High Court, 218 cases were filed in 2002 and 229 cases in 2003 and no order for enforcement was made for both years.”