Family
Family Law 2006 codifying Hanbali-influenced personal status
Law 22 of 2006 codifies marriage, divorce, custody and inheritance for Muslims. Non-Muslims may have their own religious rules applied in some matters.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — Family courts within the onshore judiciary.
- Deadline — 30 days to appeal a family judgment
Governing law
- Family Law, Law 22 of 2006
- Law 17 of 2020 amending certain family provisions
In practice
The 2006 codification put marriage age at eighteen for men and sixteen for women with judicial consent, required registration, and set out maintenance and custody rules in enacted form. Custody of young children usually goes to the mother while guardianship remains with the father, which is a distinction that causes practical difficulty in travel and schooling decisions and is frequently misunderstood as sole custody. Inheritance follows fixed sharia shares. Non-Muslims can in some circumstances have the personal law of their own community applied, so the applicable regime should be established at the outset.