Being happily married now, civil marriages and other forms of living together aren’t high on my interest list, but I still found this Cyprus Mail article interesting.
Cyprus law does not provide for any other form of recognised cohabitation beyond marriage.
The matter came to the fore after authorities denied a 93-year-old woman a widow’s pension because she had never married her partner of 67 years who was also the father of her eight children. The woman had applied for a widow’s pension after her spouse – who had been making his social insurance contributions as long as he was alive – died in February last year.
The couple had been living together since 1943 and had eight children. They were not married because they were relatives by marriage – her brother married his sister – and were banned from doing so at the time.
This makes me think of the laws in historic perspective. Each and every law currently in existence has a history. Some time ago, someone somewhere had a need for a law being introduced or changed. There was a human being, a life, and likely more than one that would be affected by the law. How often do we really look back at and consider that?
