Muslim Personal Law (Sharifistan)

Muslims in Sharifistan are governed by Muslim Personal Law. This law deals with law deals with civil matters between Muslim individuals as well as marriages involving a Muslim man and divorces from Islamic marriages.

Marriage and divorce

Muslim Personal Law allows polygyny if any existing wives give permission in court and the husband is able to financially support all of his wives. He is required to treat them equally (including spending equal amounts of time with them), a woman can divorce her husband for unequal treatment (if he does not treat her equally to his other wife or wives). According to the Muslim Marriage Act of 1932 (as amended in 1995) a Muslim man can marry either a Muslim woman, a Muslim man or a woman of the book, a Muslim woman can only marry a Muslim. A woman can divorce her husband without prior separation for "adultery, cruelty, neglect (including desertion), apostasy, child abuse or cowardice", a Muslim man can divorce his wife for "adultery, cruelty, child abuse, atheism, paganism or repeated disobedience". Divorce can also be allowed after a period of separation of four years, without attributing fault to either party. The husband is required to pay alimony to the wife unless divorce is because of her proven adultery. Due to the high evidentiary standard (four reliable witnesses to the same overt act are required) adultery is the least common reason for divorce. The most common reason for women to divorce their husbands is cowardice whilst the most common reason for men to divorce their wives is disobedience.

Defamation

Defamation is defined as "insults or accusations which are and/or were false and the defendant had no valid reason to believe them to be true.", in 2020 an elected politician sued a nobleman for calling him a "lily-livered loser" and won £28,000 in compensation.