Kota Kinabalu: Hundreds of children are languishing in welfare homes or child centres while waiting for their parents to finalise their divorces at the Syariah Court.Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) Director of Family, Social and Community Division, Saimah Mukhtar, said these children were placed in the centres by the court pending the outcome of their parents custody tussle over them.
"There are hundreds of cases like this in the Federal Territory (in the peninsula) and this often occurs," she said after the closing of the Retour Women's Rights Under the Law Seminar at the Sabah Federal Administrative Complex, Monday.
Chairman of Jakim Puspanita, Datin Saadiah Ahmad Rashdi, officiated at the closing of the event organised by Jakim's Family, Social and Community Division with cooperation from Sabah Jakim.
Saimah said these children were caught in the middle when their parents could not find an amicable solution on custody.
Under normal circumstances, she said children below the age of two or who have not reached puberty would be placed under the mother's care.
However, due to complexities in the Muslim marriage institution, some fathers opt to fight for custody of the children in the Syariah Court.
Saimah said some fathers were willing to spend huge amounts of money to engage lawyers' services just so that they can get custody of their children.
"All this stem from feelings of hatred," she said.
Many of the cases that Jakim came across also involved mental torture.
Normally, it is the husband who inflicts mental torture on his wife as a result of deep hatred for his spouse, she said.
She said the mental torture could be in the form of blatant attempts to hinder the wife from meeting her family members.
This includes inciting the children to hate their mother, she said, adding that this form of torture is really painful for the mother.
There were cases where the mother was granted custody of the children but their father came to the school to "steal" them and brought them elsewhere where no one can find them.
"In the end, it is the children who will suffer," she said.
Saimah said Jakim saw clearly the suffering of the children in welfare homes or child centres simply because their parents were too stubborn to give in or settle their custody claim amicably.
Dr Mohd Naim Mokhtar, Deputy Director of Family Support under the Malaysian Syariah Judiciary Department, presented the talk.
