Rafeah Saidon

Welfare Survival Index of Working Spouse: Income Sharing Dimension

Working wives’ phenomenon has become a norm in Muslim families in Malaysia where wives work to assist their husbands financially. It is purportedly aimed to ease the financial burden of the family. However, working wife may affect the family in managing the household chores, educating the children and taking care of them. The children might be somewhat neglected while the household chores might be out of control. In fact, there were also cases where financially independent working wives resulted in the husband being negligent in spending for the family needs, causing the wives to take care of almost all of the expenses of the household. This has led to many cases of marital problem. Hence, this study aims to examine the existing literatures on the welfare survival index of families where both husband and wife are working. There are several dimensions of survival index such as the income and spending aspects of working spouses, time spent with family, conflicts encountered, health of family members and balance of savings at month end. This study only focused on the income and spending aspects of working spouses. The study adopts qualitative method through library research. Finding of the study implied that sharing of income by the wives would contribute to the sutainability and happiness of a marriage. This study is expected to add to the new frontier of knowledge in understanding the importance of income sharing between working husband and wife including the challenges they might encounter.

Educational Right for Underage Spouse from Shariah Perspective

The study focuses on the issue of neglecting the educational rights of underage spouses in Malaysia. It is pertinent due to the increased number of underage marriage reported recently throughout Malaysia. Thus, the study aims to examine the law relating to educational rights for underage spouses as well as to study the educational impact of underage marriage. In conjunction with that, a qualitative method is adopted by referring to the principles stipulates in al Quran and as-Sunnah. Reference to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Federal Constitution, National Education Policy, Malaysian Education Blueprint, Child Act 2001 and Education Act 1966, referred journal and articles are also to be made. Besides, this study also employed a semi-structured interview conducted at Unit of Divorce, Marriage, and Consult, Department of Family Law at Islamic Religious Official Selangor. The structured interview also to be conducted with the registrar of Shariah Lower Court, Selangor. The finding indicates that respondents do not pursue their studies and fail to get adequate basic education as stipulated in the Education Act and Human Right Act. Therefore, further research on the human rights for education in Malaysia needs to be carried out more intensively. It is hoped that this article will shed some lights on the rights of child spouse especially in education prior and after marriage in Malaysia.

Halal Immunization Concept Through Vaccination for Infants and Children Based on Maqasid Shariah Framework

The Malaysian government’s immunization program has been implemented since the 1950s. Under this program, the Ministry of Health Malaysia provides several types of vaccines to children and infants to prevent diseases like diphtheria, measles, tuberculosis, and polio. However, in Malaysia, there has been a significant increase of the anti-vaccine groups. The most common reasons given are doubts of the halal status and its side effect. In view of such issue, this research is carried out to examine the concept of immunization through vaccination from Shariah perspective. The principle of Maqasid Shariah and its relation to immunization will be the focus of this study. With regards to this, evidences from the holy Quran and Sunnah and views of classical and contemporary scholars will be critically analyzed. This research adopted qualitative method due to the large involvement of resources obtained from the library research and authoritative websites. The findings from the research show that immunization program through vaccinations for infants and children are in line with Islamic teachings based on the Maqasid Shariah principle. It is hoped that the findings can be a reference for both public and policy makers in being more observant when handling Shariah-related issues with the help of traditional and contemporary scholars.

Shariah Compliance in Fair Distribution of Matrimonial Asset

The divorced spouse often face obstacle in distribution of matrimonial asset especially in determining a fair portion of share of the asset. The problems in managing the dispute of dividing the asset caused delay and prolonged litigation process. Thus, to safeguard the interest of the parties in the marriage, Malaysian family law for Muslim regulates the right for the divorced wife to apply for division of matrimonial assets where it regulates criteria in division of the assets. Thus, the study is undertaken to investigate the effective law in dividing the assets through court practices. For that purpose, a case study was designed by using a qualitative method where analysis was conducted on a careful selected sampling of 215 unreported cases within the time frame of 2000–2012 collected from six zones representing Shariah Courts in Malaysia where analysis is made based on several variables such as mode of division, scope of matrimonial asset, elements of consideration, and proportion of share. Based on that sampling, it has been discovered that contribution remains as a sole criteria used by the court to ascertain the proportion of share to parties. Thus, this study suggests that the court should use more generalized considerations in determining the proportion when dealing with the division of matrimonial assets after divorce to prevent a costly and lengthy litigation process and to ensure fair distribution is conducted by the court. There is a need for a reform of provision to consider other factors too other than contribution as sole determinant in division.

Reappraisal of Governance for Underage Marriage in Malaysia

Marriage before the age of 18 is a reality for many young women in most part of the world including Malaysia. Despite being prohibited by international human rights laws, underage marriage continues to be practised. This study attempts to examine the existing legal and administrative mechanism and to find out their weaknesses in governing the underage marriage for Muslim people in Malaysia. In this research, laws and administrative procedures of Federal Territories relating to underage marriage are chosen to represent other states of Malaysia. For this, these data are mainly from Islamic Family Law Federal Territories Act 1984 and related administrative procedures and formalities. Other relevant laws and administrative procedures are studied and analysed, whereas for the theoretical part, data from library research were sought. This research also employed a semi-structured interviews conducted on several respondents from the related institutions. This finding of this research shows some significant weaknesses in the governance of underage marriage from both legal and administrative aspects which contribute to the country’s rising rate of underage marriage. This study also proposes important recommendations for improvement which could reduce the rate of underage marriage.

Analysis on the Legal and Administrative Mechanisms in Curbing Syndicate and Runaway Marriages in Malaysia

Legal and administrative mechanisms are designed to ensure the legality of marriage under both the Shariah and Malaysian laws. The aim is also to preserve the interest of the family and the public. However, there are people who still look other alternatives to be married mainly through syndicate or simply to run away to country’s border. This study attempts to examine the existing legal and administrative systems and to find out their weaknesses in preventing syndicate and runaway marriage for Muslim people in Malaysia. In this research, laws and procedures from four selected states in Malaysia are chosen, i.e., Selangor, Federal Territories, Negeri Sembilan and Kelantan. Data of this research were obtained from library research and semi-structured interviews conducted on several respondents from the related institutions. Law and procedures from the four states were also studied and analysed. The finding of this research shows some significant weaknesses in both legal and administrative aspects that contribute to the country’s alarming syndicate and runaway marriage rate. This research also suggests some recommendations for improvement that could reduce the rate of both illegal marriages.