Familienpolitik

Perhaps with all the excitement over California, not much attention was paid to the fact that an entire country legalized same-sex marriage this week.  Effective January 1, 2009, Norway joins Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands, Canada and South Africa in allowing complete parity between heterosexual and homosexual marriages.  Read about it here, in this brief New York Times article.

Key to the new legislation is that same-sex couples will be allowed to adopt and lesbians may be artificially inseminated.

Tags: Norway, same-sex marriage

Surely in response to the first same-sex weddings in California this week, Redbook has an interesting article profiling nine different married couples.  The author uses the couples as examples of nice marriage types:

• Covenant marriage
• Second marriage
• Polyamorous marriage
• Average marriage
• Long-distance marriage
• Child-free by choice
• Same-sex marriage
• Late-in-life marriage
• Married young

The one marriage type I was unfamiliar with was the covenant marriage.  Legal provisions for covenant marriages exist in Louisiana, Arkansas and Arizona.  In response to the rise in no-fault divorces, covenant marriages make it more difficult to get divorced, require counseling, and emphasize that marriage is for life.  Divorce is only allowed in cases of abuse, adultery, commitment of a felony or abandonment.

This kind of seems like a step in the wrong direction in that divorce reform is meant to provide individuals with an out from unhappy marriages, without having to accuse their spouse of abuse or adultery.  Yet it isn’t hard to get the impression that some people do take marriage and divorce too lightly.

Would you ever consider a covenant marriage?

Tags: family policy, Marriage, same-sex marriage

Today in California the court ruling opening the door to same-sex marriage kicks in at 5:01 pm.  Some county offices plan to stay open late to accommodate eager grooms and brides.  According to this cnn.com article, however, the bride and groom terms have been replaced in the paperwork with “Partner A” and “Partner B.”

Looking forward to seeing the first photos of the first weddings!

A new feature of Familienpolitik is the 5 questions interview. This week I spoke with Faizah Marzuki, a 31-year-old Malaysian who is an account director for an advertising company.

In the interview Marzuki refers to the fact that in Malaysia the different ethnic and religious populations are governed by different laws. Muslims, who make up about 60 percent of the population, are bound by sharia law. Ethnic Chinese and Indians, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus and other non-Muslims are ruled by civil law. This makes a big difference when it comes to marriage and divorce, as Marzuki describes in her answers.

Click to listen to 5 questions with Faizah Marzuki: 5 questions with Faizah Marzuki.

Tags: family policy, Islam, Malaysia, Religion, Sharia

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