COMMENT | The Kedah government has recently taken measures to facilitate the marriage registration of Muslim couples who have previously solemnised their marriages in Thailand but have not registered their union upon returning.

According to Kedah Islamic Religious Committee chairman Mohd Rawi Abd Hamid, the programme was meant to protect the welfare of the wives concerned and to prevent their children from ending up stateless, and not to promote illicit marriages.

Similarly, the Selangor Islamic Religious Department also launched a special "Jom Daftar Nikah" programme on Aug 1, for couples residing in Selangor who were married before Jan 1, 2017, but who had failed to register their marriage legally.

Last year, the Islamic Religious Affairs, Islamic Education and Personality Development Committee of Perak which runs a mass wedding programme for newlyweds, stated that it is also considering the proposal to introduce a mass polygamy wedding package, for the same reason as Kedah and Selangor.

With all these state Islamic religious departments poking their noses into people’s marital affairs, I wonder: don't state governments have anything better to do? Why the “jaga tepi kain orang” (busybody) attitude?

There are many other social matters which need the support of state religious authorities. I hereby take the liberty to mention a few:

1. Many divorce procedures do not get through because husbands are unwilling to ‘release’ their wives, causing many problems for women and their children;
2. Many divorced women do not receive the alimony they are entitled to;
3. Many single mothers are struggling without receiving enough (and timely) child support from their exes;
4. Many wives are tormented in abusive relationships, fearing to walk out of the marriage;
5. Many husbands/wives are refused child visitation rights by their exes.

Now, why are the religious departments not doing anything about the issues above?