You can divorce your wife by sending an email to your lawyer.

Those grappling with applying the 7th century tribal law of an alien culture to modern times in Indonesia often face some tricky issues. One such issue, the matter of whether email can be considered a valid form of communication in terms of Islamic law, has been dealt with in trail-blazing fashion by Fierza Luthfyana, a law student at the University of Surabaya (Ubaya).

Fierza has written a thesis titled “Keabsahan Talak Melalui E-mail Ditinjau dari Kompilasi Hukum Islam” in which she provides arguments to say that a man is not permitted to inform his wife of his intention to divorce her by email, but he can send such an email to his lawyer.

The good people at Antara, who have long provided IM with some of its most interesting material, in their “National News” section, inform us of some of Fierza’s findings: antara

Email can be used to tell your wife that you intend to divorce her but the email must not be sent to her but to someone else.

That other person, like your lawyer, or a trusted friend, can then relay the information to your wife at a session of the Religious Court. The point is, the intention to divorce one’s wife must be read out or presented in written form at a formal hearing. Fierza hammers home the point, which has no doubt been troubling the minds of many, until now:

So if the email is sent to your wife it is not [a] valid [way of divorcing her], because the message has not been spoken. Another person can though [receive the email], like a lawyer.

It is not clear whether Fierza addressed the issue of voice emails, which are recorded and then replayed in court.