IT'S unfortunate that ridiculous lawsuits are entertained by Bahrain's already snail-paced judicial system. But the cases against women's rights activist Ghada Jamsheer, who is accused of defaming three Sharia judges, are landmarks which should bring about much-needed change. The trial is already working against her accusers, drawing worldwide attention to Bahrain's faulty family courts system. There is more media interest now than when Ghada allegedly libelled them by questioning the logic (or illogic) of their decisions.

In one case a woman lost custody of her son because she had allowed him to go to school wearing a sneaker with a hole in it. The offending shoe was submitted to court as Exhibit A. A widow was once refused entry to an inheritance hearing because she wasn't wearing an abaya. Another judge declared a mother unfit because she worked at a supermarket and was therefore corrupt, you see.

Suddenly I feel an acute, piercing throb in my frontal brain lobe...

Ghada's bravery in voicing what many people have been thinking for years opens the door for further debate.I think we don't just need a reform of these courts, we need to get rid of them altogether! Why does Bahrain follow secular laws in everything but family issues? Categorising creates more problems than it solves because the lines are inevitably blurred. Inheritance laws fall under family law, but also involve the fortunes of businesses and employees. Bahrain, like all countries, is made up of different ethnic groups. Some are Sunni, some Shi'ite and some not Muslim at all. Why should the rules be different for each? What happens when a Muslim marries a Christian? What if neither of them actually practice their religions? What does that make their children? If you are in a particular country, you should be subject to the same rules, whether you are a local, expatriate, tourist or a visitor from Mars.

Many Sunni families are officially listed with the government as Shi'ites because the laws are more favourable to female inheritors. Why force people to find such ridiculous loopholes? Why require them to disclose their beliefs in the first place? Common sense tells me that women should be able to divorce their husbands. If half of the marriage wants out, then it's over. Sometimes wives have to actually pay off their husbands to get a divorce, which sounds like court-sanctioned extortion to me.

How many more lives have to be ruined before Bahrain finally comes up with a comprehensive personal status law? These issues are just too important to rest on the whims of old-timers with little legal training.

tariqk1976@hotmail.com 

tkhonji@yahoo.com

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