The family court briefed a parliamentary committee yesterday about the growing problem of unregistered marriages conducted overseas, flagging the case of a woman with three husbands.

"This is a very dangerous matter. This could lead to confusion in our lineage. Many negative consequences could arise from this. Therefore, this is something that needs to be looked into very carefully," Ahmed Mausoom, the court’s legal officer, told lawmakers. 

The woman in question married abroad but failed to register the marriage in the Maldives. After abandoning the first marriage, she flew overseas again and entered into a second marriage. She tried to register the second marriage at the family court in Malé, which already had documents from the first marriage. But before the court could make a decision, the woman then entered into a third marriage, Mausoom explained.

There were several cases of people failing to obtain the necessary permission from the court to get married out of the country, he said.

Court officials appeared before the committee in response to a proposal from MP Mohamed Ibrahim from the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party to raise the mandatory MVR 2,000 (US$ 130) monthly child support payment. The current fixed amount is unadjusted for inflation and insufficient to cover expenses, the MP for Galolhu North noted, urging the committee to review the existing regulations.

But offering the discretion to judges to determine payments based on the fathers’ income would be a more equitable solution, Mausoom advised lawmakers. Additional expenses for food, clothing and medicine could be claimed through lawsuits, the family court’s legal officer noted.

In 2024, the court registered 181 marriages conducted in other countries and oversaw cases involving MVR 97 million, including alimony, dowry, maternity support and child support payments. Throughout the year, the court officiated 2,485 marriages and formalised 1,326 divorces.