Global

New book explores gender and equality in Muslim family law

Submitted by Musawah on Fri, 04/19/2013 - 13:45
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A collection of essays exploring gender and equality in Islam is launched by a panel of distinguished thinkers at SOAS, University of London on Saturday 27 April.

Gender and Equality in Muslim Family Law is chaired by SOAS Professor of Law Lynn Welchman.  It brings three of the contributors, Mohsen Kadivar, Muhammad Khalid Masud and Mulki al-Sharmani, together with UN Special Rapporteur Heiner Bielefeldt and lead editor Ziba Mir-Hosseini.

Moving the conversation forward on Muslim women's rights

Submitted by Megh on Mon, 01/07/2013 - 11:36
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By Sheherazade Jaffari

Muslim women’s rights. These three words— whether uttered by religious fundamentalists, progressives, politicians, activists, believers or nonreligious people in the West or the East — have been debated, co-opted, claimed, defined and redefined, and are at the heart of some of today’s most contentious debates worldwide. Indeed, these three words are central in my own advocacy work and scholarly pursuits. A fascination for some and a threat for others, Muslim women’s rights are receiving attention worldwide – as they should.

Feminist voices in Islam: Promise and potential

Submitted by Musawah on Wed, 12/26/2012 - 10:35
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by Ziba Mir-Hosseini

Religion is back in public space, and the thesis that modernization means the privatization of religion has been seriously questioned. Some religious and feminist dogmas need re-examination. What do ‘secular’ or ‘religious’ or ‘feminist’ mean in today’s contexts?

Islam and feminism are often perceived and portrayed as incompatible. There is a plethora of literature and a host of arguments, both in the media and in academia, to show this is the case.

Video: The Potential and Promise of Feminist Voices in Islam

Submitted by Musawah on Wed, 12/26/2012 - 10:05
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In this lecture at Barnard College, New York, member of the initial Musawah Planning Committee (founders) and member of the current Musawah International Advisory Group, Dr Ziba Mir-Hosseini, draws on Musawah as one example of exploring the Islamic feminist movement's potential for changing the terms of debates over Islam and gender, arguing that the real battle is between patriarchy and despotism on the one hand, and gender equality and democracy on the other.

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:

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).

The "hareem" of the new Egyptian Constitution

Submitted by Musawah on Tue, 07/24/2012 - 09:53
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On my way to the 8 March women’s march scheduled to take off from the Press Syndicate downtown, I overheard an animated conversation between two young men walking beside me near Ramses Street. One was almost shouting at the other, telling him, “Over my dead body would I take money from a woman; why would I do that?!

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?

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:

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