ABSTRACT
There is official satisfaction that the divorce rate has fallen conspicuously in Singapore since the 1957 Ordinance which provided for the establishment of the Shariah Court. The restriction on polygynous unions has led some men to seek a divorce when they wished to take another wife. The majority of divorces are registered 'by mutual consent'. There are also cases of women who apply to the Court for divorce on the grounds that they have been deserted over a period of years by their husbands and left with no maintenance whatever. Some men are eager to have their divorces registered not because they wish to take another wife, but because they do not wish to pay maintenance to their estranged wives. Muslim women are particularly sensitive to the shocked incredulity expressed by non-Muslims when they learn that a Muslim may divorce his wife without provocation, by the simple procedure of uttering a formula of repudiation.
