Maryland High Court Refuses To Recognize Talaq Divorce

[Friedman, Howard M.]

Yesterday the Maryland Court of Appeals (the state's highest court) issued an interesting decision refusing to grant comity to an Islamic talaq divorce obtained under Pakistani law by a World Bank employee residing in Maryland. The employee and his wife are both citizens of Pakistan living in the US under diplomatic visas. After the wife filed for divorce in a Maryland court, the husband hurried to the Pakistani embassy and obtained talaq divorce in order to prevent Maryland from declaring his World Bank pension to be marital property. Among other grounds, the court found that recognizing talaq divorce generally available only to husbands would be inconsistent with provisions in the Maryland constitution asuring equal rights for women. Details and a link to the decision are on Religion Clause blog: http://religionclause.blogspot.com/2008/05/maryland-high-court-refuses-to-grant.html

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Howard M. Friedman 
Disting. Univ. Professor Emeritus
University of Toledo College of Law
Toledo, OH 43606-3390 
Phone: (419) 530-2911, FAX (419) 530-4732 
E-mail: howard.friedman at utoledo.edu 
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