A divorce under Islamic law which would have left the wife with just 10 per cent of their assets has been declared to be bogus.
The husband, referred to in court documents as Mr Ahmed, 47, told Sydney’s Family Court of Australia he had divorced his wife on his porch in 2009, The Australian reported.
But the wife, known as Ms Basra, 38, said the ceremony never took place and claimed Mr Ahmed was married to two women, instead of being divorced and remarried.
Ms Basra and Mr Ahmed married when she was 18 in an Islamic ceremony in Australia in 1997. They married again in Lebanon, a marriage recognised by Australian law, and had three children together.
She had obtained three Apprehended Violence Orders (AVO) against Mr Ahmed and she and the three children had been forced to live in a refuge over a period of three months and then again for one year.
She estimated she had done 95 per cent of the housework and parenting, while he estimated he had done 100 per cent of the bread winning.
The couple separated in November, 2008, the court heard.
Mr Ahmed claimed a Sheikh and other men had witnessed him say ‘I divorce you’ to Ms Basra on his porch.
Beforehand, the Sheikh had asked Ms Basra whether she wanted the divorce and whether she understood her entitlements under an Islamic divorce, Mr Ahmed claimed.
She would have been entitled to $100,000 of their $1 million assets.
Counsel for the husband accused Ms Basra of ‘cynically trying to present her husband as [a] barbaric, misogynist, Arab man’.
Mr Ahmed’s counsel said she had been ‘attempting to portray herself as this downtrodden, under-the-thumb Islamic woman’.
However, Justice Garry Watts said the wife had, in his view, ‘quite candidly conceded that that is exactly how she saw herself’.
Justice Watts said he had ‘some difficulty in accepting the husband’s evidence as truthful’ because it appeared ‘contradictory’.
He said he believes Mr Ahmed falsified conversations.
Their Islamic divorce was ruled to be not recognised under Australian law.
Justice Watts ordered Ms Basra receive 70 per cent of their assets in the settlement, on suspicion Mr Ahmed may have undeclared assets.