KNOWLEDGE AND ACCESSIBILITY OF MUSLIM WOMEN TO THE LAW ON POST-DIVORCE FINANCIAL SUPPORT

Abstract

The main objective of the study was to determine the Muslim women’s knowledge and accessibility to the law on post-divorce financial support particularly that which relates to ʿiddah maintenance, mutʿah, arrears of maintenance, and child maintenance. The data was collected using self-administered questionnaire. The sample was 201 divorced women recruited from the recorded cases for the period 2003-2005 in the Shariah Subordinate Courts of Hulu Langat and Gombak Timur, Selangor. The findings indicate that almost all respondents (99%) have high level of knowledge on the legal rights to post-divorce financial support. However, more than two-thirds of the respondents (70%) had low level of accessibility to the law when claiming for post-divorce financial support. The study suggests that although divorced women might have better access to legal information through reading and socialization, the problems regarding the attitude of the court’s officers and lawyers, the complexity of the court procedures, the uncooperative attitudes and the non-compliance of the ex-husbands to the court-ordered financial support did impede their accessibility to the law.