New Myanmar Law Regulates Interfaith Marriage

[This] “law is one of four ‘protection laws’ that would affect religious conversion, interfaith marriage, polygamy and population control. These bills, collectively known as the ‘protection of race and religion laws,’ were proposed in 2013 by Ma Ba Tha, a group of nationalistic Buddhist monks.” (washingtonpost.com)

by Anna K. Poole
Posted 7/15/15, 11:48 am

Image: (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe) – https://nationalpostcom.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/myanmar_pariah_muslims.jpg

Human rights groups are blasting a new law adopted last week in Myanmar, also known as Burma, requiring women to register their intent to marry outside their faith. The legislation gives the government power to halt the marriage of a Buddhist woman to a non-Buddhist man if someone raises objections to the union.

“It’s shocking that Burma’s parliament has passed yet another incredibly dangerous law, this time legislating clearly discriminatory provisions targeting the rights of religious minority men and Buddhist women to marry who they wish without interference,” said Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division.

Myanmar’s new marriage law is the second of a four-part series of bills known as the Protection of Race and Religion Laws, drafted by hardliner Buddhist monks with a staunch anti-Muslim agenda.

In May, President Thein Sein enacted the first of these laws, a population control bill mandating a 36-month gap between children for certain mothers and giving regional authorities the power to implement birth spacing in overcrowded areas. Some argue the legislation is aimed at curbing high birth rates in the Muslim community. The population bill is vague about the penalty for unauthorized births less than three years apart, but it could include coerced contraception, forced sterilization, or abortion.

For a non-Buddhist man in Myanmar, stepping into an interfaith marriage could prove ruinous. According to a recent Human Rights Watch report, the marriage legislation prohibits husbands from “committing deliberate and malicious acts, such as writing, or speaking, or behaving, or gesturing with intent to outrage feelings of Buddhists.” Noncompliance is considered a divorce-worthy offense, sweeping away the man’s land and child custody rights, and punishable with a prison stint of up to four years.

In November, when Sein first sent a draft of the bill to Parliament, The Myanmar Times reported some women’s disapproval.

“We already have restrictions on marriage because we need to marry in the same faith and caste,” said one Burmese woman, who requested anonymity. “I’m curious how this law will actually protect Buddhist women.”

The marriage act changes little for Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims, one of the most severely oppressed minority groups in the world. Denied citizenship within Burmese borders, the Rohingya are essentially stateless and already face tight restrictions on the right to register marriages, births, and deaths. Since 2012, heavy persecution of minority Rohingya Muslims by radical Buddhist groups has sparked a maritime mass exodus and regional refugee crisis.

By signing the interfaith marriage bill into law, “the [Myanmar] government and ruling party lawmakers are playing with fire,” Robertson said. With the landscape of this Buddhist-majority nation increasingly stained by sectarian violence, legislators risk much by proposing such inflammatory restrictions. The marriage bill, like the population control bill before it, will only add fuel to Myanmar’s simmering religious tension.

The pending half of Myanmar’s Protection of Race and Religion Laws include a monogamy bill criminalizing extramarital affairs and a bill requiring government registration and approval prior to religious conversion.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

In: world

Video: Al Jazeera English

Video: Kachin Australia

Read also:

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07 Nov 2015: ‘Muslims are dangerous’: Myanmar Buddhist monks threaten democracy with support for anti-Muslim laws

22 Aug 2015: Discriminatory ‘Race and Religion’ bills threaten tensions ahead of elections: APHR

14 Jul 2015: Myanmar law restricting marriage of Buddhist women blasted by EU, rights groups

09 Jul 2015: A trap law for married men and women

18 Dec 2014: Myanmar women object to proposed restrictions on interfaith marriage

28 Jul 2014: Women unite against ethnic and gender discrimination in Myanmar

09 Jul 2015: Burma: Reject Discriminatory Marriage Bill

14 Jul 2014: WHRDs in Burma under threat for opposing Interfaith Marriage Bill

07 Jul 2014: Myanmar’s Parliament Approves Controversial Interfaith Marriage Law

16 Jun 2014: Myanmar President Thein Sein and Speaker of Pyithu Hluttaw Thura Shwe Mann: No Interfaith Marriage Bill

12 Jun 2014: U.S. opposes Burma’s plan to restrict interfaith marriage

05 Jun 2014: Nearly 100 Myanmar Groups Slam Move to Restrict Interfaith Marriages

04 Jun 2014: Fears of new unrest as Myanmar ponders monk-backed interfaith marriage ban

06 May 2014: Women of Burma speak out against Interfaith Marriage Act

27 Mar 2014: Burma’s Muslims Are Facing Incredibly Harsh Curbs on Marriage, Childbirth and Religion

25 Mar 2014: Human Rights Watch calls Myanmar to scrap proposed restrictions on interfaith marriages

25 Mar 2014: Rights Group Slams Proposed Curbs on Interfaith Marriage in Myanmar

28 Feb 2014: Myanmar to mull interfaith marriage law

09 Jan 2014: Wirathu to Discuss Interfaith Marriage Restrictions at Monks’ Conference

17 Jul 2013: Controversial Myanmar Marriage Proposal Gains Two Million Signatures

20 Jun 2013: Suu Kyi Blasts Proposed Law on Marriage Restrictions

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