MP Faiszer Mustapha’s private member bill on reforms to the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act (MMDA), handed over to Parliament on January 5th 2026, signals the ever-increasing support of Muslim communities for family law reforms. Whilst acknowledging the leadership on a few key issues concerning the MMDA, we register our concern and disappointment that the Bill proposes piecemeal reforms.
This Bill fails to address other fundamental aspects of discrimination faced by women and girls under the current MMDA.
We outline below briefly the contents of the Bill and our accompanying concerns:
- The legal age of marriage for the bride and groom should be 18, with exceptions for 16-year-olds. Highlighted in the bill are some bizarre conditions, including requiring the ‘consent’ of minors, which goes against the principles of marital contracts as applying to adults only. As per anecdotal cases and research, many child marriages occur between 16-18 years, hence exceptions will do little to resolve the issue of child marriages within the Muslim communities.
- The requirement of the bride to “sign the declaration made by wali (guardian)” or a “separate declaration”, which still does not give Muslim brides the autonomy to enter into a marriage, by placing her signature on the same document, on an equal footing as Muslim grooms.
- The requirement that Quazis be Attorney-at-Law, which fails to account for the broader substantive and procedural reforms required for the Quazi system.
- The removal of gender barriers to enable women to serve as Quazis; however, the Bill is silent about other administrative positions like marriage registrars and the Board of Quazi, which continue to exempt women.
We see the Bill as addressing only a few of the most publicly visible demands. While we endorse the sentiment that reforms are urgently needed, we hasten to say that this form of piecemeal reform will undermine long-standing demands by those most affected under the MMDA, and will be ultimately ineffective. The concern is that Muslim women will continue to suffer under a law and system that perpetuates discrimination and fails to provide real solutions. Any reform to the MMDA must address the full range of issues faced by Muslim women and girls.
Curiously, this Bill does not acknowledge the ongoing reform process initiated in 2020, which built on the work of several previous consultative reform committees and resulted in the report of the 2021 Advisory Committee on Muslim Law Reforms. This has been a process of multi-stakeholder interventions, consultations, debates, and agreeing on many of the reforms needed. As an outcome of this process, a Draft Amendment Bill is currently pending before the Ministry of Justice. In January 2026, the Ministry of Justice sought consultation on specific issues concerning this draft bill. It has been a frustratingly slow process, and there have been no guarantees of a timeline for substantive reforms.
Some key urgent reforms still needed in the MMDA include:
- Raising the minimum age of marriage to 18 years, without ANY exceptions;
- Ensuring brides consent and signature on marriage documents, and the signature of the wali (guardian) as optional;
- Protecting the right to Mata’a (maintenance)
- Ensuring fair distribution of matrimonial property
- Comprehensive reforms to the Quazi court system, transitioning into a family court system for all family law cases;
- Fair and equal procedures for divorce;
- Abolishing polygamy, or at a minimum, requiring stringent conditions, including consent of all parties and proof of the financial capacity of the husband;
Muslim political representatives are fully aware of the extreme injustices Muslim women endure. However, they fail to understand that the systemic problems women face under the MMDA are deeply interconnected. Narrow reforms cannot resolve these systemic problems. We are not asking for a lot, merely meaningful and comprehensive reforms.
While we appreciate the sentiment for urgent reforms in the Bill proposed by MP Faizer Musthapha, we must caution against the impact of piecemeal reforms. We urge, instead, that all Muslim members of Parliament support comprehensive reforms. Anything less would be failing our Muslim communities at this time. Even though the process has been unjustly lengthy, we recognise the inclusion of many progressive positions grounded in the lived realities of Muslims in Sri Lanka in the Ministry of Justice’s publicly shared outline of reforms.
We urge the Government to make meaningful progress on the existing draft Bill to amend the MMDA with urgency!