Why? Because these family laws were based on Sharia, which is considered the law of Allah. You don’t reform the law of Allah. From VOANews, with thanks to Twostellas:
Thirty-three-year-old Heda made the mistake of having a child that her husband did not want. At least this is the version of the story she tells a reporter at a shelter for abused women in downtown Algiers.
Heda, who gives only her first name, comes from the rural village of Tebessa, about 600 kilometers east of the capital.
She says her husband divorced her eight-years ago, when he found out she was pregnant. Her family, she says, agreed to take her in, but only if she gave her infant son up for adoption. Heda refused, and found herself homeless.
Under Algeria’s 1984 family law, men can divorce their wives without a reason, and have no obligations towards their former wives.
This is no innovation. It’s straight Sharia, and so is this about polygamy and permission:
Algerian men can have up to four wives, although few actually do. Women must ask permission from a male member of the family before they can marry.
Nevertheless, all this is supposed to come from “twisted” Islamic principles. Which principles, exactly? How was it that all the major schools of Islamic law ended up twisting Islamic principles in the same way?
For years, Mrs. Belaala says, men have twisted Islamic principles to suit their purposes and to discriminate against women. It is about time, she says, to put an end to it.
Neighboring Tunisia has long boasted of having the most emancipated women in the Arab world. Morocco, to Algeria’s west, recently amended its family law to nearly abolish polygamy, increase legal marriage age for women and to force men to seek divorces in court.
And upon what Islamic principles were these liberalizations based?