Last Change:
06/25/2025
Law of Marriage Act
Year: 1971
Type: Domestic law
Rights Category: Documentation
Description
The Law of Marriage Act is a Tanzanian law that governs all matters related to marriage. It provides for the formation, registration, and dissolution of marriages, as well as the rights and duties of spouses. The Act applies to all types of marriages—customary, Christian, Islamic, and civil—and aims to unify and regulate marriage laws in the country.
Selected provisions
Where a marriage is contracted in civil form, it shall be the duty of the district registrar forthwith to register it.
When a marriage is celebrated by a minister of religion according to the rites of a specified religion, it shall be his duty forthwith to register it.
Where a marriage is contracted in Islamic form or according to rites recognized by customary law in Tanzania, it shall be the duty of the Kadhi or registration officer, as the case may be, forthwith to register it.
Where a marriage is contracted in Islamic form or according to rites recognized by customary law in Tanzania, the parties shall, within thirty days after the date of the marriage—
a. attend before the Kadhi or registration officer for the district in which the marriage was contracted; and
b. furnish such particulars as may be prescribed, and it shall be the duty of the Kadhi or registration officer to register the marriage.
Every district registrar shall maintain a register of annulments and divorces in the prescribed form.
A marriage contracted in Tanzania may be either monogamous or polygamous.