Women's rights activists are in an uproar in Malaysia this week after their national court upheld Muslim Sharia law and allowed a husband to divorce his wife by text message. We've discussed divorce by text message here before, and it's still just as disgraceful as it ever was. Unfortunately there's nothing new to report there except that another country is jumping on the bandwagon.

But — and there's always a but — when I read this article, one particular thing caught my eye. The reporter mentioned that under Sharia law, a man simply needs to announce that he wants to divorce his wife and whammo, they're done.

I knew this. I also knew that a woman seeking a divorce, no matter what the provocation, has an uphill battle of red-tape and gender discrimination ahead of her.

Until today, though, I didn't know how bad it was.

"If a woman wants a divorce, she must go before a court … and she must prove her husband has an inadequacy - usually impotency or extended absence." (Emphasis mine.)

Let's play a little imagination game here. Let's imagine that a woman has decided to divorce her husband, and let's imagine she's doing it because he's impotent. Now let's imagine that her husband is Muslim as well, and he knows that proving his impotence is one of only two ways she can get out of the bonds of holy matrimony.

Exactly how can a woman prove her husband's impotence in a court of law?

Do you think hubby's going to pack up the car and head down to his local urologist and say, "Hey doc, let's see how Captain Winky's doing!"? Do you think he's going to show the gentleman of the court so they can see for themselves?

This system is set up for women to fail. Way to go, Malaysia, for doing your part to repress the rights of women. Rock on.

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