Judicial and legal systems with regard to family matters have completely been replaced by customary practices and Sharia'a Law. Therefore, women are brought up solely to serve their husbands in child bearing, child upbringing and chores around the house. Additionally, teenage girls absolutely have to be virgins before marriage, and leads to the widespread practice of female genital mutilation in the country.

Polygamy also exists under customary and religious practices, and in the judicial system of Somalia. Men have to justify marrying an additional woman by the fact that their current wife has fallen ill, has become sterile, or "unjustifiably absent" from the household.