Abstract
South Africa has a pluralistic society in which various religious and cultural groups, such as Muslims and Hindus, live according to their own customs and usages. At present the law of South Africa generally does not recognise the validity of some of these customs and usages, for example marriages concluded in terms of Islamic law or Hindu law are not recognised as valid marriages. The consequences of non-recognition have been particularly unfair to women.
There have been calls for the recognition of other family law systems and, in particular, for the recognition of Islamic family law. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 recognises the cultural diversity of South Africa and provides for the enactment of legislation recognising other systems of law based on religion or culture. However, such legislative recognition must be consistent with the Bill of Rights and other provisions of the 1996 Constitution. All inequalities between men and women should therefore be dealt with before legislative recognition is given to family law systems that discriminate against women. In this paper the obvious tension between gender-equality and freedom of religion within the new constitutional dispensation is discussed. In doing so, the focus will be on Islamic law and the position of Muslim women with respect to inheritance laws.
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