a glimpse at financial hardship and child support issues among divorced single mothers in malaysia...
TRANSCRIPT
A Glimpse at Financial Hardship and Child Support Issues among Divorced
Single Mothers in Malaysia
Zarina Md Nor, PhDUniversiti Sains Malaysia
Silvia Zia Islam, PhDRMIT University Melbourne
Hong Kong Child Support and Maintenance Conference 2015
9-11 November 2015 2
Acknowledgement
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) for the travel grant from the
university’s International Conference Fund and also to the organizer of the ‘Recovery of Child Support and Family
Maintenance in Asia Pacific and Worldwide: National and Regional Systems and the Hague 2007 Convention and
Protocol’ conference for sponsoring the conference accommodation in Hong Kong.
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Introduction• Single mothers in Malaysia mostly consist of
widows and divorcees, followed by a small number of permanently separated women.
• The death of husbands remains the main route to single motherhood.
• Marriage is literally the only way of having children as premarital birth is socially and religiously unsupported.
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Motivation of study
The plight of (low income) single mothers and their children is yet to receive wide attention among academia. The absent of regular and/or insufficient payment of child support is a common issue faced by single mothers.
Moreover, published studies on child support topics in Malaysia are very limited.
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Malaysian Family Law
• In Malaysia there are different family law systems for Muslim and non-Muslim
• The Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act 1976 was enforced in 1982 governs the non Muslims whilst the Muslims are governed by the Islamic Law System
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Islamic Family Law
• Provisions from the Malaysian Islamic Family Law dictates that the court has to decide the maintenance amount based on the husband’s ability and the needs of the wife and children.
• This provision is too general and does not specifically define the terms ability and needs used to calculate the maintenance amount.
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Maintenance Amount
• The concept of kifayah (adequacy) and ma‘ruf (kindness) are applied by the judges in Malaysian Sharia Courts.
• The Sharia judges have taken into consideration several criteria in their judgement to clarify and measure the kifayah and ma’ruf concepts which reflects that the modern socio economic conditions.
(Ahmad, Azahari & Rahman 2013)
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Focus of Preliminary Study
Malay Muslim divorced women with children
- Divorce happens in higher rates among Muslim couples compared to the non Muslims
- Custody usually given to mothers and joint custody is yet to be formally implemented
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Preliminary study on Child Support(N=15)
Age at divorce No of children Income (RM) Education level Types of work Shared custody Child supportPayment
38 3 1k-2k High SchoolAccount supervisor
Yes Sometimes
32 1 4k-5k DegreeTeacher
No Sometimes
30 3 1k-2k High SchoolFactory worker
No No
39 2 3k-4k DegreeTeacher
No No
48 More than 3 1k-2k DiplomaTechnician
Yes Yes
36 1 4k-5k DegreeHR officer
No Sometimes
18 2 Less than 1k SecondaryAdmin clerk
No Yes
38 1 More than 5k PhDLecturer
No No
35 1 More than 5k PhDLecturer
Yes No
35 1 More than 5k PhDLecturer
Yes No
39 2 More than 5k PhDLecturer
No Yes
27 2 2k-3k High SchoolAdmin officer
No Sometimes
39 3 2k-3k High SchoolSecretary
No No
36 More than 3 3k-4k DegreeMarketing executive
Yes No
47 3 2k-3k High SchoolMarketing personel
No No
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Summary of Results
Mean age at divorce = 35.8 yearsNumber of children
Shared custody = 33%Child support payment
No of Children Percentages
1 33%
2 27%
3 27%
More than 3 13%
Yes 13%
Sometimes 27%
No 53%
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Conclusion
Non-payment of child support worsen financial hardship faced by single mothers
Single mothers’ income from employment mitigate the effect of non payment of child support by absent fathers
Child support issue needs to be seriously considered by policymaker as it may affects the wellbeing of children in single mothers’ households
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Thank you