A glimpse at court proceedings at the shari'a court of qadi Muhammad Abu Obeid in Baqa al-Gharbiya.
By SHULA KOPFSharia plaque(photo credit: Sarah Levin)
THERE ARE NINE CASES ON THE DOCKET ON A Thursday in late June in the shari’a court of qadi Muhammad Abu Obeid in Baqa al-Gharbiya. The courtroom is on a main street, on the second floor, above a branch of the Bank Leumi.The courtroom is bare. Everything looks new except for a clock on the wall, which is frozen at 8:50. Abu Obeid, 40, tall, his face accentuated by glasses and a closely trimmed beard, sits formally, in a dark blue suit and a white shirt. Seated behind a desk on a podium, he studies two computer screens and calls the first case. The atmosphere feels almost informal, and the discourse is in a familiar tone.A diminutive woman, her face heavily made up, wearing white jeans with a blue shirt and a matching blue headscarf scarf, enters the courtroom, accompanied by an attorney. Her husband has moved to Gaza and disappeared, and she wants a divorce. Obeid says he will publish announcements in newspapers in Gaza and send people to find the missing husband. If he does not show up by a certain date, Abu Obeid will grant the woman a divorce.“The case was just started last month and will proceed very fast,” Abu Obeid tells The Report while waiting for the next case.“If she gets older no one will want to marry her. In shari’a law there is no such thing as an aguna,” he says, referring to Jewish religious law according to which a woman may not divorce, and thus may not remarry, without her husband’s permission, even if he is not available or is unwilling to grant the divorce. “Here we can grant her a divorce without the husband being present.”The couple in the next case are also accompanied by a lawyer.Katerina, the wife, is slender with blond hair tied up in a ponytail and wears jeans and a short-sleeve shirt that reveals her upper arms.He is burly and dressed in black. Katerina is from Poland; she met her Muslim husband while visiting Israel as a tourist. They married abroad and now want to divorce. They have already prepared the paperwork in civil court but to be legally divorced in Israel they must receive a religious divorce from the shari’a court.Abu Obeid addresses Katerina in Hebrew, probably for the benefit of the reporter present in court.“Are you sure?” he asks. “Yes.”“Is this of your own free will and you are sure?” “Yes.”“Why don’t you want to be married?” “Our ways have parted,” she answers.“I am writing that the both of you agree to divorce in accordance to the attached divorce agreement, is that clear?” “Yes.”“Stand up,” Abu Obeid commands and asks Katerina to repeat after him. “I Katerina… Agree to the divorce…” After the husband repeats similar words, Abu Obeid tells them that according to the laws of shari’a, they are officially divorced and may no longer live together as husband and wife.“You may not marry for three months to make sure that you are not pregnant,” he explains to Katerina. “After three months you may marry anyone you want.”The court secretary points to the papers in Arabic and shows Katerina, who doesn’t know Arabic, where to sign.Abu Obeid’s office is furnished sparsely, with no pictures on the walls or personal items. A prayer rug is folded on a shelf; the only book is a 1,270-page compilation of the Islamic shari’a law. Seated at his desk after the proceedings, he says that if a woman goes to civil court on one issue and comes to him for another, he will not “hold it against her” in his rulings.“It’s her free choice,” he says. “I will deal with her as I would with any other person.” He says this is also so for a woman who comes to court in dress that is not in accordance with Islamic dictates.“I have never asked a woman why she is not dressed properly because I’m sitting as a judge and not as a preacher. If I were to ask, she might think that I’m against her.”Despite these statements, Abu Obeid says he views issues from the point of view of the shari’a and even now, 10 years after the amendment was passed, he remains unhappy with the Knesset’s decision to give Muslim women the right to appeal to the civil courts.“Allah gave the people the choice to believe or not to believe and they have the choice to go to shari’a court or to civil court. But if you are a believer and go to a non-shari’a court, you have to know that you are breaking the law of Allah and Allah will not be happy with you.” •
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