Islamic Sharia Council repay the dower to receive an Islamically recognized divorce. The Islamic Sharia Council must recognise a British divorce, by virtue of the law of the land, if the petitioner shows them a decree absolute. However, the Islamic Sharia Council is displeased if the dower remains unpaid. Writer, broadcaster and academic Myriam Francois-Cerrah has pointed to "serious problems" with the councils, citing a case in which a Muslim woman seeking advice was reportedly directed to a "controversial cleric" who urged her to give up her custody dispute with her husband and "hand over full custody of her seven year old child"
Application of Islamic law by country against it in 2005 by the National Assembly of Quebec, while the province of Ontario allows family law disputes to be arbitrated only under Ontario law. The country has a common law system. The country has a civil law system. In the United States, various states have outlawed sharia, or passed some form of ballot measure which "prohibits the states courts from considering foreign, international or religious law." these include Alabama, Arizona, Kansas, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Dakota and Tennessee. Criminal law in Afghanistan continues to be governed in large part by Islamic law. The Criminal Law of September 1976