Govt’s handling of legal access and flexibility in urgent marital cases lauded

AMMAN – Lawyers and religious figures on Tuesday praised the government’s procedures in facilitating legal access and flexibility to certain urgent marital cases during the COVID-19 crisis.

During an online lecture titled “The COVID-19 Pandemic on the Personal Status Law Cases”, which was organised by Solidarity is Global Institute (SIGI), the participants said they were able to contact the relevant Sharia and Christian courts to facilitate certain matters such as alimony and obtaining marriage certificates.

Lawyer Fatima Dabbas, a specialist in Personal Status Law cases, commended the government and the Supreme Judge Court’s (SJC) procedures in protecting the rights of the family to safety and security.

“We tried to help people who contacted us through online technology and were able to reach the court for limited but important transactions such as securing alimony court order payments for children of separated parents, which was much needed during these difficult times,” Dabbas said.

“The SJC also took steps to protect the right of people such as allowing the registrations of some marriages during the COVID-19 crisis to protect the legal rights of the newlywed,” Dabbas added.

Meanwhile, Lawyer Yacoub Far, a specialist in Christian marital cases, also said that “we had to deal with many marital and alimony cases during the COVID-19 crisis and were able to help solve problems socially and legally”.

“The situation entailed us to reach out to individuals to help them, especially the alimony orders, and marriage and divorce cases, and this was much needed during this difficult times,” Far added.

Father Bassam Shahateet said that church officials were also busy during the COVID-19 lockdown by reaching out to families to solve some issues such as the paying alimony or “resolving common marital problems to ease up any accumulations”.

“We conducted some marriages and issued certificates based on strict health conditions as stipulated by the government,” according to Shahateet.

SIGI Executive Director Asma Khader concluded the event by stressing that the main goal of the organisation’s work is to “secure the rights of married couples during these difficult times”.

“We always try to first solve the conflicts through reconciliation, but if we cannot solve it then the law is there to protect the rights of family members and hopefully the opening of the courts soon will help us safeguard the legal rights and wellbeing of parents and children,” Khader added.