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MALAYSIA, September 15, 2003: In Malaysia, Muslims come under the Syariah judicial system while non-Muslims come under the civil judicial system. But which system has overriding jurisdiction when a civil marriage breaks up and a spouse converts to Islam? Women’s groups and lawyers recently got together for a discussion hosted by the All Women’s Action Society. Shamala Satiyaseelan got married in November 1998 in a Hindu ceremony. Four years later, her husband left her to marry a Muslim woman. Upon his conversion, Shamala initiated High Court proceedings to ask for custody of their two children. In April 2003, the High Court issued an order in favor of Shamala. She was given custody and the husband was allowed to see the children over the weekends. The husband was prohibited from taking the children out of Alor Star, where they lived. Meanwhile, against her wishes, her estranged husband had converted their children and went to the Syariah Court to get a separate custody order. In May, the Selangor Syariah High Court granted him a custody order. Two weeks later he took the children out of Alor Star. The husband has also initiated divorce proceedings at the Hulu Langat Syariah court. As a result, Shamala has been summoned to the Syariah court for both custody and divorce proceedings. It is Shamala’s position that as a person of another faith, a Hindu, in her case, she is not subject to the jurisdiction of a Syariah Court. This is just one example of the problems that arise in the context of conversions into Islam by one of the spouses to a civil marriage because of the existence of two separate and exclusive applicable legal systems: the Syariah system applicable to the Muslim party and the civil system applicable to the non-Muslim party.

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