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Palestinian courts take a break from divorce during Ramadan

The head of Palestine's Islamic courts has banned judges from registering divorces during Ramadan, citing hasty decisions made by fasting Muslims.
A Palestinian couple waits before a mass wedding ceremony in the West Bank city of Jericho January 28, 2014. A spokesman working together with the Palestinian Presidential Office said some 300 Palestinian couples, 80 of them from the Gaza Strip, wedded on Tuesday in the mass ceremony funded by the Presidential Office and attended by President Mahmoud Abbas. Each couple would also be given $4,000, the spokesman said.   REUTERS/Ammar Awad (WEST BANK - Tags: SOCIETY) - RTX17YR6
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RAMALLAH, West Bank — Iman Basel, 25, is waiting for Ramadan to be over so she can file for divorce at an Islamic court in Nablus. Basel, who requested that Al-Monitor not use her real name, has not been able to file for divorce since a Palestinian judge banned such proceedings from taking place during Ramadan. 

On May 28, the head of Palestinian Islamic courts, Mahmoud al-Habash, told judges in the West Bank not to grant divorces over Ramadan unless necessary. The order did not apply to judges in the Gaza Strip due to the divided state of the Palestinian government.

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