Early marriage & Right to Choose

'Will I Get My Dues... Before I Die?'

Submitted by Musawah on Thu, 12/27/2012 - 12:40
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Harm to Women from Bangladesh's Discriminatory Laws on Marriage, Separation, and Divorce

by Aruna Kashyap of the Women's Rights Division, Human Rights Watch (September 2012)

This report is based on interviews with 255 people in 2011, including 120 women who have experienced the shortcomings of Bangladesh’s personal laws, as well as lawyers, experts, government officials, and former judges. It finds that these laws discriminate against women during marriage, separation, and divorce, and exacerbate women’s economic inequality.

Review: 'Marriage and Slavery in Early Islam'

Submitted by Musawah on Wed, 12/26/2012 - 09:37
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Review of Kecia Ali's 'Marriage and Slavery in Early Islam' (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2010. Pp. viii + 262, $39.95.)

By Ziba Mir-Hosseini

Excerpt:

Nepal's Muslims win constitutional rights

Submitted by Musawah on Tue, 10/02/2012 - 13:28
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Copied as 'fair use'.

25 May 2012

Nepali Muslims, representing 5% of the country's 27 million people, won an important political victory on Sunday (May 20th).

Picture: Boy arrives for prayers at Kashimiri Takye Jame Mosque in Kathmandu/Reuters

Muslim women attempt to reinterpret the "DNA of Patriarchy" in Koran

Submitted by Musawah on Tue, 07/24/2012 - 11:04
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ISTANBUL (TrustLaw)—When it comes to Islamic law, one short verse in the Koran poses one very big obstacle to advocates for Muslim women’s rights--but they may have found a way around it.

The key is fighting medieval interpretations of the Koran with modern scholarship, according to Dr Ziba Mir-Hosseini, a professor and legal anthropologist on Islamic law at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).

Decoding the 'DNA of Patriarchy' in Muslim Family Laws

Submitted by Musawah on Mon, 07/23/2012 - 11:34
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Why and how did verse 4:34, and not other verses in the Qur’an, become the foundation for the legal construction of marriage? Why are qiwamahand wilayah still the basis of gender relations in the imagination of modern-day jurists and Muslims who resist and denounce equality in marriage as alien to Islam? How can we Muslim women reconstruct the concepts?

Musawah Fact Sheet: Indonesia

Submitted by Musawah on Thu, 07/12/2012 - 12:18
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Indonesian Government CEDAW Review

52nd CEDAW Session, July 2012

CEDAW and Muslim Family Laws: In Search of Common Ground (Arabic)

Submitted by Musawah on Mon, 06/18/2012 - 16:17
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A recent Arabic translation of this Musawah report is available for download now.

This report documents the trends identified in the Musawah research project on the Convention on the Elimination of All Kinds of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which examined States parties' justifications their failure to implement CEDAW with regard to family laws and pratices that discriminate against Muslim women. The research reviewed documents for 44 Muslim majority and minority countries that reported to the CEDAW Committee from 2005-2010.

Wanted: Equality and Justice in the Muslim Family (Arabic)

Submitted by Musawah on Mon, 06/18/2012 - 16:14
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This is a set of theoretical papers to provide support for Musawah's declaration that equality is necessary and possible in Muslim families today. 

From the Introduction, by Zainah Anwar:

Musawah Fact Sheet on Article 16: Algeria and Jordan

Submitted by Musawah on Mon, 06/18/2012 - 16:01
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Musawah Fact Sheet on Article 16: Algeria and Jordan

February 2012 - 51st CEDAW Session, Geneva Switzerland

This Musawah report takes a critical look at the status of marriage and family relations, as encapsulated in Article 16 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (‘CEDAW’ or ‘CEDAW Convention’), in Algeria and Jordan, two of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member states reporting before the 51st Session of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (‘CEDAW Committee’).

Forced Marriages Among Turks, Moroccans and Hindustani in the Netherlands

Submitted by Musawah on Tue, 03/13/2012 - 13:02
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The focal point of this research paper (2005) is the question: What place do forced marriages occupy in the process of choosing a spouse among Turks, Moroccans and Hindustani in the Netherlands? This research paper focuses on a comparison between the three groups named.

The following research questions are posed:

1. What views are held with respect to marriage, the importance of marriage and how it is brought about (especially the place given to freedom of choice, on the one hand, and coercion, on the others, with respect to who one is to marry)

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