SAVING THE FAMILY: CHANGING ATTITUDES TOWARDS MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE IN THE MUSLIM COMMUNITY IN THE 1950s AND 1960s

Abstract

The 1950s and 1960s were a tumultuous period for Singapore. The society transitioned from being a British colony after the Japanese Occupation into an independent state in 1965, after having undergone a traumatic separation from Malaysia. The rapid changes that Singapore underwent as a country mirrored the developments within its local Muslim community. A community that experienced high divorces rates, child marriages and little restrictions on polygamy in the 1950s had been by the 1960s, seen the collapse of these practices. This thesis seeks to explain the ideological and intellectual shift in the attitudes within the Muslim community towards the family unit. It argues that the emergence of reform-oriented Muslim movements in the shape of Islamic modernists and Muslim feminists in the early twentieth century played a decisive role in challenging the established norms in the community. Both groups attempted to impose their agenda in the community, utilising a variety of different methods to spread their ideas. This however, led to a tussle between both groups as they vied for control over the agenda of the Muslim family. By studying the various developments during this period, the thesis will trace the struggle for control and its eventual outcome.