Unregistered Muslim Marriages: An Emerging Culture of Celebrating Rites and Conceding Rights

Muslim marriage rites, covering an array of ethnicities, attract lavish attention and are a public display of devotedness to each other by the bride and groom. In a growing number of cases, these marriage rites are not followed by registration of the marriage according to the formalities required by the Marriage Act 1949, therefore they fail to give rise to any family law rights. This chapter explores the expectations of British Muslims regarding their marriages, and the underlying factors which occasion their consent solely to an unregistered religiously sanctioned marriage, to which the state and its institutions are not party.