Marital Captivity Divorce, Religion and Human Rights

This collected edition by experts from all over the world, reflects a multidisciplinary approach to marital captivity and shows a multifaceted view of this widespread phenomenon. Marital captivity is a social and human rights problem that occurs within religions or religious communities worldwide. It is defined as a situation in which one or both spouses, but predominantly the wife, is unable to terminate a religious marriage, consequently trapping that spouse within the marriage against her or his will. As such it is a form of forced marriage and violence against women. Because of its severe social, legal, and economic implications, the phenomenon is approached from different perspectives: anthropological, sociological and legal. In thirteen chapters the book discusses the practice of marital captivity and human rights approaches, solutions and best practices to marital captivity. It is therefore a must-read for civil society, academics, legal practitioners such as solicitors, the judiciary, notaries and registrars, policy makers, and all other practitioners and ngo’s concerned with family issues and violence against women.

Susan Rutten is personal Professor of Islamic Family Law in a European Context at the Faculty of Law, Maastricht University. She coordinated the NWO project ‘Marital Captivity: Bridging the Gap between Religion and Law’.
Benedicta Deogratias defended her PhD thesis at Maastricht University in 2019 on the human rights dimensions of marital captivity and on how human rights law can be used to address this phenomenon. As part of her research, she also produced a short documentary titled ‘Trapped in a marriage’.
Pauline Kruiniger, as postdoctoral researcher at the Law faculty of Maastricht University, examined instruments that Dutch and foreign law can offer to prevent or resolve situations of marital captivity.

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