The tiny minority of extremists in Algeria is trying to crush plans to improve the lives of women, because the proposed reforms violate Islamic law: Algerian Islamic parties oppose women rights reform.

ALGIERS, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Islamic parties said on Wednesday they would oppose a government plan to improve Algerian women’s rights in marriage and divorce in the Muslim country emerging from more than a decade of civil war.

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika made reforming the 1984 family code a priority after his sweeping re-election in April but now faces pressure from two Islamic parties, one within the coalition government, to call a referendum or kill the bill.

“We will mobilise all society to stop this reform,” said Abdelmajid Menasra, deputy chairman of the MSP, a member of the government that has called for a national referendum.

Analysts fear Bouteflika may stall or water down the reform, which would show Islamic parties still carry weight after a long-running Islamic militant uprising that claimed the lives of more than 150,000 people, according to human rights groups.

The jihad was sparked by the cancellation of elections the now-banned Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) was set to win in 1992.

The reform bans men from divorcing their wives for no reason and gives women the right to financial support from their ex-husbands. Men would need their wives’ permission to take more wives, up to the four permitted by Islam.

The Islamic sharia law-inspired code would scrap the need for women to ask permission from a male family member to marry.

“These amendments are unconstitutional as they go against the constitution, which says sharia Islamic law is the state religion,” said Lakhdar Benkhalef of El Islah opposition party.