Authorities in Tajikistan plan ban on divorce by text message

Tajikistan's Council of Ulema is set to issue a fatwa banning a so-called SMS-divorce, the state religious committee have announced. The move comes amid growing complaints that some Tajik men - working as migrant laborers in Russia - divorce their wives by sending a mobile-phone text message or just making a phone call.

Sunni Islamic traditions allow men to divorce their wives by merely saying "talaq," an Islamic term for a declaration of divorce. Tajik religious leaders, however, insist that ending a marriage is not such a simple matter.



"Our country's laws prohibit men from divorcing their wives over the phone," the head of State Committee on Religious Affairs Abdurahim Kholiqov said. "It is against Tajik laws and it is un-Islamic. The state religious committee and the Council of Ulema have discussed this issue, and the council is going to announce its decision very shortly. Such a way of getting divorced is prohibited."

According to local lawyers, SMS-divorces largely leave wives and children without any financial settlement because it's simply impossible to track down their husbands working in Russia. There are no official statistics about the number of SMS-divorces in Tajikistan, but local media says there have been "hundreds" of cases.