Women's Rights and Islamic Family Law: Perspectives on Reform

The family is where legal rules presented as part of the Islamic shari`a are most widely applied in the Muslim world. This connection, often differently elaborated by particular social constituencies, can present difficulties to the advocates of law reform. At the same time, the resonance of the issues at which advocacy is targeted creates an opportunity for creative exchange in addressing practical strategies for change. This volume explores the present-day realities of Islamic family law, with particular emphasis on the rights of women, and focusing on law in its living social context as reflected in public opinion and personal experience. A concluding study ranges further afield in order to explore the challenges and potential of 'principles of shari`a' in advocacy on the question of violence against women. This book makes possible a detailed examination of possibilities of, and constraints on, legal reform in the area of Islamic family law in specific contemporary contexts.

• Introduction - Lynn Welchman
• Part I: Muslim Personal Status Law in Egypt: The Current Situation and Possibilities of Reform through Internal Initiatives - Essam Fawzy
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Social Context
  • 3. Personal Status Law in Egypt: Historical Overview
  • 4. Understanding the Law, Egyptian Family and Social Attitudes
  • 5. Law No.1 of 2000: A New Personal Status Law and a Limited Step on the Path to Reform
  • 6. General Conclusions
• Part II: Islamic Law and the Transition to Palestinian Statehood: Constraints and Opportunities for Legal Reform - Rema Hammami, Penny Johnson, Fadwa Labadi, and Lynn Welchman
  • 1. Introduction - Penny Johnson and Lynn Welchman
  • 2. Legal Context: Shari`a Courts and Muslim Family Law in the Transitional Period - Lynn Welchmann
  • 3. Palestinian Interim Governance: State Legislation, Legal Reform, and the Shari`a - Penny Johnson
  • 4. Attitudes Towards Legal Reform of Personal Status Law in Palestine - Rema Hammami
  • 5. Agents for Reform: The Women's Movement, Social Politics and Family Law Reform - Penny Johnson
• Part III: No Altars: A Survey of Islamic Family Law in the United States - Asifa Quraishi and Najeeba Syeed-Miller
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Islamic Family Law in American Muslim Hands
  • 3. The Muslim Family in the US: Law in Practice
  • 4. Islamic Family Law in US Courts