WEBINAR: Why Muslim Family Law Reform? Why Now? Regional Perspectives

Many countries at the bottom of various gender equality surveys are those whose family laws discriminate against women. Recent research has found that egalitarian family law reform may be the most crucial precondition for empowering women economically. Yet family law reform today remains the most intractable area of law reform.

In this webinar, we unpacked the urgency of reforming discriminatory Muslim family laws in three regions: South and Southeast Asia, Middle East-North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Some highlights from the webinar below: 

• Moderator Hyshyama Hamin opened the webinar by laying the global context on Muslim family laws. She briefly described key findings of Musawah’s research mapping Muslim family laws and reform processes in over 33 countries, including the 12 principal issues of concern that are most common globally in Muslim family laws. Hyshyama also highlighted Musawah’s knowledge building efforts, especially in clarifying Islamic terms such as Shari’ah, fiqh (human jurisprudence) and Islamic law, which are often used in place of one another and cause confusion and resistance to reform efforts. 

• Marwa Sharafeldin highlighted Muslim family law-related issues in the MENA region and shared specific challenges that Muslim women living under discriminatory family laws in the region face in the context of COVID-19. These challenges include an exacerbation of domestic violence and heightened control and restriction of autonomy of Muslim women, especially because, “Many Arab and Muslim family laws not only contain provisions that promote an unequal relationship between the genders, but they also condone varying levels of violence.” She also highlighted the impacts of increased domestic and care labour at home during the pandemic, keeping in mind that the region has the highest rate of domestic work for women compared to men in the world during ordinary circumstances. According to Marwa, the impacts of increased care work are closely associated with women’s ability to work for pay outside the home. During her talk, Marwa also shared examples of progressive reform of Muslim family laws in the region and why Muslim family law reform must be a priority issue of concern for Arab governments. 

• In her presentation, Hala Al-Karib highlighted the nature of Muslim family laws in the Sub-Saharan African region, with a focus on Horn of Africa countries. She spoke about the interaction between religion and customary laws and practices in the region and the impacts of both codified and un-codified laws and practices on Muslim women and girls. Hala shared examples of family law regimes in Ethiopia, Uganda, Djibouti, Sudan and Somaliland. She also mentioned the contradictions between constitutions that provide for equality and non-discrimination compared to Muslim family laws that contain and exacerbate discrimination against Muslim women. A key point Hala mentioned in her presentation was the need to shift the agenda within women’s rights movements towards family law reform  and the need to transfer our lived realities into a political agenda to push for reform of discriminatory family laws. 

• Last but not least, Zainah Anwar gave a presentation about the South and Southeast Asian region, which houses the majority of Muslims in the world, including the countries with the largest Muslim-majority and -minority populations (Indonesia and India, respectively). She highlighted the diversity of legislation pertaining to family laws and plural legal systems in the region and the similarities of issues that Muslim women face under discriminatory Muslim family laws. Zainah shared examples of how, in many countries in the region like Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Singapore, and India, civil laws have advanced the rights of non-Muslim women, while Muslim family laws have denied these same rights for Muslim women. In a context where distribution of matrimonial assets is nonexistent in the majority of Muslim family laws globally, Zainah shared examples of exceptional legal provisions pertaining to matrimonial property regimes in Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. Lastly, Zainah spoke about the need for a Campaign for Justice in Muslim Family Laws to garner regional and international momentum for reform of discriminatory Muslim contexts, and how we see this campaign as part of the global movement for social justice to end all forms of inequalities. 

The presentations were followed by a vibrant and energising Question-and-Answer section, where the panelists responded to questions from attendees about the codification of family laws in countries with only customary/religious practices, whether ‘egalitarian Muslim family laws’ is possible, regional and national advocacy strategies to reform Muslim family laws, and the importance of engaging with Islamic jurisprudence and Islamic legal tools in reform processes. 

The Zoom webinar was attended by 130 participants from 34 countries. This webinar is part of Musawah’s Campaign for Justice in Muslim Family Laws. Want to know more about the Campaign for Justice in Muslim Family Laws? Email us at campaignforjustice [at] www.musawah.org.