Is Your Nikah Legal? What a religious-only marriage means in the UK

In this episode, Aina Khan OBE, an international family lawyer based in London who started the Register Our Marriage campaign, joins Dr. Daisy Khan to talk about religious-only marriages: couples who have a nikah but never register their marriage with the state. Aina, explains why England and Wales still marry under rules set by the Marriage Act of 1949, what a wife can lose when a marriage is not registered, from property and maintenance to a pension and a say in a medical emergency, and why so many women assume a nikah is enough. She shares the calls that started her campaign, including women who found out after decades that they had never been legally married. They discuss triple talaq and the right way to divorce in Islam, the responsibility of imams, the Prophet's teaching to "tie your camel," and the law Khan would like to see: every faith registering its religious marriages, so that a marriage made before God is also recognized by the law. 02:52 Religious vs legal marriage 05:11 The calls that started the campaign 05:56 Register Our Marriage: stuck in 1949 08:57 Why the government won't act 10:39 "Test her out" 14:32 What unregistered wives lose 17:20 Why women think a nikah is enough 20:08 How to protect yourself 21:21 Triple talaq and the right way to divorce 24:38 The imam's responsibility 25:42 Changing England's marriage law 27:24 "Tie your camel" 29:21 "The angels are our witnesses" 30:54 Marriage is the basis of civilization 31:33 The ideal law Aina Khan OBE's Socials: Website: https://www.ainakhanlaw.com Register Our Marriage: https://registerourmarriage.org Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ainakhanobe/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ainakhanlawyer X: https://x.com/ainakhanlondon Sources and credits: Office for National Statistics, Census 2021 (Religion, England and Wales). Channel 4 / True Vision Aire survey of 903 Muslim women, 2017 ("The Truth About Muslim Marriage"). Hadith: Jami' at-Tirmidhi 2517. Photo of Theresa May: "Official portrait of Baroness May of Maidenhead" by Roger Harris / UK Parliament, CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), via Wikimedia Commons. Additional footage: Pexels (pexels.com). Daisy's Socials: Website: https://daisykhan.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daisykhan.nyc/?hl=en Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drdaisykhan/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/daisy.khan.56246/ X: https://x.com/DaisyKhan