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Discursive Discourse on the Breakdown Theory of Divorce and its Application
in the Shari'ah-Compliant Maldives Family Act of 2000
Article · January 2023
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M. Z.M. Nomani Faizan Mustafa
Aligarh Muslim University Chanakya National Law University
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Manchester Journal of Transnational Islamic Law & Practice
Volume 18, Issue 3: 34-50, 2023
Discursive Discourse on the Breakdown Theory of Divorce and its Application in the
Shari’ah-Compliant Maldives Family Act of 2000
M. Z. M. Nomani*
Faizan Mustafa**
Mohammad Rauf***
Abstract: The focus of this article is the Shari’ah-compliant Maldives family law‘s decennial
working in fostering familial relations, gender justice, and children’s welfare. The discourse
and diametric of divorce procedures are based on the discursive analysis of the Maldives
Family Act (2000). The article analyses the phenomenology of the rise in divorce in the
Maldives based on the content and right-based approach of the breakdown theory of divorce
under Sections 23-30 of the Act. The family jurisprudence and narrative in Maldives stem from
the British colonial statutes, Portuguese legal traditions, and foundational values of Islamic
laws and modern legislative reforms. The Quranic and Shari’ah-based norms are grounded in
the Constitution of Maldives (2008) and there are requirements of international feminist law,
most notably the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against
Women (CEDAW) (1979). The diversity of factors relating to the dissolution of marriages vis
a vis family dispute resolution by the Family Court and Magistrate Court offers insightful
understanding of the real-world implementation of divorce law in general and break down
theory of divorce in particularities of the Maldives. This article finds that a high incidence of
divorce is primarily attributed to the breakdown theory of divorce recognised under Sections
23-30 of the Maldives Family Act (2000). In nutshell, marriage neither is the mega event of
life nor is divorce a stigma in the Maldivian socio-legal milieu, and so are the frequent widower
and divorcee re-marriages in Maldivian society. The application of the breakdown theory of
divorce and its enforcement in the Maldives Family Act (2000) is a good example for
refurbishing Shari’ah oriented as well as common law-based family laws across multicultural
and heterogeneous jurisdictions of the world.
Keywords: Break Down Theory; Dissolution of Marriages; Faskh, Ruju’ & Khul’ Divorce;
Gender Justice; Maldives
I. INTRODUCTION
The Maldives Family Act (2000) accords primacy to marital and conjugal rights and
emphasizes female empowerment through international and national legal instrumentality. It
believes that any society which is not engendered is always fraught and endangered in peace
and progress. Therefore, the gender-based laws adopted libertine legal values in the substantive
and procedural content of the Maldivian divorce laws. It led to the sharp rise in divorce, placing
Maldives top in the world under the Guinness World Record. As a natural sequel the family
law and courts also tried to resolve the matters in Shari’ah as well as the modern notion of
gender justice. Despite this being a significant element that would raise the divorce rate, no
pragmatic explanations advanced to succinctly point out the cause and effect syndrome of the
break down theory of divorce. Anecdotal evidence indicates that disagreements between
people, financial difficulties, extra-marital affairs, and domestic abuse are two reasons that
Volume 19, Issue 3 (34) 2023
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