Interesting Islamic “remarriage” under Special Marriage Act

Adv C Shukkoor (53) and Dr Sheena Shukkoor (51) got married “once again” under Special Marriage Act in Kanjangad, Kasaragod district. Their children made the prearrangements on the evening of the registered marriage.

They got married in Hosdurg Sub Registrar Office, Kanjangad, early this week in the presence of their children and a crowd of relatives and friends.

Shukkoor is an actor, prominent lawyer and former district public prosecutor; Dr Sheena Shukkoor is the former Pro Vice Chancellor of Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala. And she is currently Head of the Law Department in Kannur University, Kerala.

The idea behind the “remarriage” was to give their entire properties and wealth to their children. According to the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat), they cannot bequeath their properties to their children as they do only have female children.

They applied for marriage registration as husband and wife. They have also applied for a certificate to establish that their children are ‘really their children’. All the three daughters of them were pleased to tell the media that ‘they are lucky, because they could witness the wedding of their parents, both visually and legally. Shukkoor also stated that ‘they wanted to establish before the society that they can eradicate the hurdles in the way of bequeathing their properties to their daughters’.

However, Darul Huda Islamic University’s (Malappuram district) Fatwa Council alleged that this wedding is nothing but a drama to ensure that their entire properties go to their children alone. It adds that the believers will resist it.

Shukkkoor reacted that the above Council alone would be responsible if he is attacked.

In fact, both Adv Shukkoor and Dr Sheena Shukkoor got married on October 6, 1994, in her house in Palakkad, according to the Muslim Personal Law. They selected International Women’s Day for their “remarriage” to express the pro-woman view against the Muslim Law of Inheritance and Succession. They are upholding the theory of ‘gender equality’. They believe that more will follow them.

Here is a rare incident of remarriage sans divorce. If it is a remarriage, it is Nikah Halala aka tahleel marriage, a practice in which a woman, after being divorced by triple talaq, marries another man, consummates the marriage, and gets divorced again in order to be able to remarry her former husband.