Blog

How can recent reforms of family laws in Muslim contexts provide ideas and strategies that can be used to advance gender justice? In this webinar, Dr. Jouirou, Professor Welchman and Dr. Sharafeldin will explore ways in which contemporary family laws and legal practices have been reformed in recent years to embrace gender equality. They will share examples of different approaches that reformers have taken around specific issues such as domestic violence, polygyny, and inheritance. They will examine some of the contexts and factors that have enabled change, including the interplay between Muslim legal tradition, human rights, state laws and societal norms, and critically assess strengths, remaining gaps, and possibilities for future reform.

How do we critically engage with the foundations of usul al-fiqh in the process of revisiting Muslim marriage? In this webinar titled “Rethinking Fiqh Rulings on Marriage through Structural Ijtihad,” Dr. Mohsen Kadivar revisits the theoretical and philosophical foundations that underpin classical fiqh rulings on marriage, and he proposes a reformist approach to contemporary Muslim marriages and family relations, using what he calls ‘structural ijtihad’.

How can one construct an egalitarian jurisprudence (fiqh) of Muslim marriage that is authentic to the tradition and functional in the contemporary context? In this webinar titled “Reclaiming Equality in Marriage: Problems and Solutions in Usul al-Fiqh,” Dr. Nevin Reda explores this question and proposes a new, Islamic feminist methodology she has developed, which she calls a “spiritually integrative approach” (manhaj niswi rawhani).