Islamic Sharia Council subservient to the English law." In an April 2013 report, the BBC's "Panorama" asked whether the Islamic Sharia Council was "failing vulnerable women and mothers" by requiring women seeking divorce to give back their marriage dowry (or "mahr"). The question of "khula" divorce often turns on the dower: if the woman is seeking the divorce, she has to return the dower to the man, or else the divorce cannot proceed. Since in traditional Islamic society, men are traditionally the bank account holders and women are traditionally homemakers, the woman has no purchase, and cannot obtain a loan in order to
Application of Islamic law by country be considered civil law based (at least the formal legal system) and legislation is the primary source of law." It has not adopted any elements of Islamic law. Sharia states: Until 1999, Islamic law applied primarily to civil matters, but twelve of Nigeria’s thirty-six states have since extended Sharia to criminal matters. Sharia courts can order amputations, and a few have been carried out. The twelve sharia states are Zamfara, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Niger, Sokoto and Yobe. Borno, Gombe and Yobe have not yet begun to apply their Sharia Penal Codes. The rest of Nigeria