Mais wins appeal to reinstate woman as Muslim

January 13, 2023

Mais wins appeal to reinstate woman as Muslim

PUTRAJAYA: The Selangor Islamic Religious Council (Mais) has succeeded in its appeal to reinstate a 37-year-old woman as a Muslim.

In delivering the Court of Appeal’s majority decision, Justice Yaacob Sam said the court held that the appeal has merits.

Yaacob and Justice Nazlan Ghazali ruled in favour of Mais in the majority judgement, while Justice Ravinthran Paramaguru dissented.

The woman, who originally professed the Hindu faith, was still a child when she was converted to Islam unilaterally by her mother.

The woman, born in 1986, said her mother had unilaterally converted her in 1991 at the Selangor Islamic religious department’s (Jais) office.

The conversion took place while her parents were in the midst of a divorce, which was finalised in 1992. Her mother went on to marry a Muslim man in 1993, and her father died in an accident three years later.

The woman contended that, despite her conversion into Islam, her mother and stepfather allowed her to continue practising the Hindu faith, which she had been born into.

In 2021, the Shah Alam High Court had granted a declaration that she was not a Muslim.