Family
The Personal Status Law 1953, amended in 2019, with courts by religious community
Personal status for Muslims follows the Personal Status Law of 1953, significantly amended by Law No. 4 of 2019. Christian and Jewish communities apply their own law through their own tribunals.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — National, with jurisdiction by religious community.
Governing law
- Personal Status Law, Legislative Decree No. 59 of 1953
- Law No. 4 of 2019 amending the Personal Status Law
In practice
The 2019 amendments were the most substantial in decades: they raised the marriage age to eighteen for both sexes, removed the guardian's power to compel or veto in some circumstances, tightened judicial control over polygamy by requiring proof of capacity and a lawful justification, and improved a mother's position on custody and travel with children. They did not remove the underlying structure in which divorce by talaq remains available to husbands. Documentation is the acute practical problem: marriages and births in areas outside government control were often registered by other authorities or not at all, and retroactive registration is a major workload.