{"id":81002,"date":"2018-09-14T15:58:59","date_gmt":"2018-09-14T22:58:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=81002"},"modified":"2018-09-14T15:58:59","modified_gmt":"2018-09-14T22:58:59","slug":"mmda-female-qazi-have-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2018\/09\/14\/mmda-female-qazi-have-two\/","title":{"rendered":"MMDA \u2013 Female Qazi? Have two!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Letter to the editor:\u00a0 Dr. Mareena Thaha Reffai, Dehiwela<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

The most contentious issue about the MMDA is the demand to appoint female Qazis. Whether this demand comes from a feminist point of view, wanting to be equal in everything to men, \u00a0(which indirectly indicates the notion \u00a0that men are considered superior ) or because of the discontentment at the way most \u2013 if not all \u2013 Qazis treat the women. Whatever it is, whether it will solve the problem(s) is the question.<\/p>\n

If it is a matter of demanding equality, how many female Qazis to be appointed? We know there are about 65 qazi posts \u00a0in the island. Is it going to be equal numbers? Or at every station to have a male and female qazi? At present there are no qualifications, no reason or rhyme how a qazi is chosen. Choosing the female Qazis too, just because they applied is not going to solve the problem at hand.<\/p>\n

On the other hand the present qazi system is anything but satisfactory is very well known. When their hands are greased they will treat the other party, often the females, sometimes men too, \u00a0in the most derogatory way and the judgement given is often very partial is very well established. The fact that they don\u2019t give equal hearing to the ladies, either because they don\u2019t care, or the matters are too sensitive is a justification for demanding females to be present at the qazi courts.<\/p>\n

But just having female Qazis in some areas and males at others will not solve this problem, for\u00a0 the cases of one area cannot be transferred to another court, except within Colombo area.<\/p>\n

A better arrangement will be to have jurors \u2013 consisting of one male and two females \u2013 so that the final judgment will be done by two males and two females. The three jurors can\u00a0 inquire or advice as the case may be and suggest the final judgment. The ladies can discuss the matters with the lady complainants and be present at the time of the final judgement. If they feel the Qazi is being impartial the case can be referred to the court of appeal where too similar system to be implemented so that \u00a0justice will prevail.<\/p>\n

Whatever is done, unless and until the basic problem of electing appropriate Qazis \u00a0and jurors and making sure they know the shariah laws and are God fearing people there will always be loopholes for injustice to take place.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sent by:<\/p>\n

Dr. Mareena Thaha Reffai,<\/p>\n

Dehiwela<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Letter to the editor:\u00a0 Dr. Mareena Thaha Reffai, Dehiwela The most contentious issue about the MMDA is the demand to appoint female Qazis. Whether this demand comes from a feminist point of view, wanting to be equal in everything to men, \u00a0(which indirectly indicates the notion \u00a0that men are considered superior ) or because of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81002\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}