He wanted to take his wife’s surname. But first, they had to change the South African law

When Jana Jordaan first told her fiancé Henry Van der Merwe that she intended to keep her last name after their marriage, he not only supported her, but also proposed to take her family name.

But the South African couple struck a hook when they tried to record their decision with a wedding agent in the Department of Home Affairs after making the knot in 2021.

“She looked very confused, then she said:” My system does not allow it, “said Jordaan In this case Nile Köksal host. “I didn’t have any words.”

It turned out that it was against the law in South Africa for a husband to take the family name of his wife, or for the two spouses to love their family names.

The couple decided to fight this apartheid law before the court. Now, three years later, the Constitutional Court of South Africa canceled the law, calling it a “colonial import” which discriminates the basis of gender.

“Fortunately, the system works,” said Jordaan.

“Equality in a relationship is very important”

Jordaan says she has been known for a long time that she wanted to keep her family name after marriage. She lost her two parents when she was only four years old and her surname name is a way to stay close to them.

“I had a very strong link to keep my identity connected to the Jordaan family,” she said.

Jordaan clearly explained that Der Merwe as soon as things started to become serious. He supported his decision immediately and went further by saying that he would become a Jordaan himself.

“This is something that I wanted to support my future family and my future wife as well, because I think equality in a relationship is very important,” Der Merwe told Köksal.

There was only one obstacle – Law on the registration of births and deaths of 1992This allows a woman to change her family name after marriage, but not a man.

Jordaan and Der Merwe therefore continued the Department of Internal Affairs for Sex Discrimination.

They were joined by the South African couple Andreas Nicolaas Bornman and Jess Donelly-Bornman, who both wanted their family names.

A lower court judged last September that the law is unconstitutional and constituted discrimination based on sex. The Constitutional Court confirmed this decision on Thursday.

The high-level court gave South African legislators and President Cyril Ramaphosa two years to modify the legislation.

‘The imposition of Western values’

Some South Africans went to social networks to make the court’s decision as an attack against South African values.

But, in his decision, justice Leona Theron argued that the opposite is true, affirming that the law is “rooted in colonialism” and imposes external ideas on marriage and gender on African cultures.

“In many African cultures, women have kept their birth names after marriage and children have often taken the name of their mother’s clan,” wrote Theron.

“With the arrival of European colonizers and Christian missionaries, and the imposition of Western values, the tradition of women taking the family name of their husband was introduced.”

Theron noted that the law discriminated against the basis of gender in violation of the Constitution of South Africa, which it argued negatively had a negative impact on men and women.

“In the case of men, they are deprived of the ability to take the family names of their women if they wish. In the case of women, the effects of this program are much more insidious,” she wrote.

“It also strengthens patriarchal gender norms, which prescribe how women can express their identity, and this makes this relational expression to their husband, as a lack of government and cultural government.”

South Africa was the first on the continent to legalize homosexual marriage in 2006. The government also recognizes polygamous marriages, in which men can take several women depending on the customs of their ethnic group.

Ignore enemies

Jordaan and Van der Merwe were on vacation when the decision fell and is eager to celebrate their victory in court on his return.

Van der Merwe, on the other hand, will soon have legally changed his family name in Jordaan. He says he is not at least concerned about what others think of his decision.

“I have not really paid attention to the comments because, at the end of the day, the main objective is with my family and the decision we made for our family,” he said.

With files from the Associated Press. Interview with Jana Jordaan and Henry Van der Merwe produced by Leïla Ahmouman.