Maastricht research on marital captivity leads to new parliamentary bill
The law needs to be changed to prevent people from being locked in a religious marriage, writes Maastricht University (UM) lawyer Pauline Kruiniger in the final report on the MARICAP study, Niet langer geketend aan het huwelijk (‘Breaking the chains of marriage’). Following one of the report’s recommendations for additional civil legislation, the Minister for Legal Protection Sander Dekker promised last week to come up with a bill that would compel partners cooperate with a religious divorce in order to combat marital captivity.
Research project on marital captivity
A study on divorce and religion has been underway at Maastricht University since 2013, as part of the research project ‘Marital captivity: Building bridges between religion and legislation’. This project is supported by a grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). Social partners are the Atria Institute on gender equality and women’s history; the Stichting Landelijke Werkgroep Mudawwanah, which promotes the legal position of Moroccan women; the Stichting Proefprocessenfonds Clara Wichmann, which supports test cases to improve the legal and social position of women; and Vluchtelingen-Organisaties Nederland, a national network for refugee organisations.