In Malaysia, the ongoing arm wrestle between the civil court system and the Islamic Court system has reached a key stage in the case of Hindu citizen Mrs Indira Gandhi.
In 2009, Mrs Gandhi’s husband Patmanathan moved out of the family home, taking their 11-month-old daughter Prasana with him. He converted to Islam, taking the name Muhammad Riduan Abdullah, and then filed for unilateral conversion to Islam of their three children without consulting his wife. On this basis, he was given custody of the children from the Shariah Court as, according to Islamic Law, children remain with the Muslim parent if a mixed marriage ends in divorce.
Over the last 12 years there has been a complex process of appeals and counter-appeals to the civil and Islamic court systems. Mrs Gandhi challenged the conversion of her children in the civil courts, seeking custody in the process. After five years, the Malaysian High Court reached a ground-breaking decision in 2014, quashing the conversion of the children on the grounds of its unilateral nature by the father.
