Women and Muslim Family Laws in Arab States: A Comparative Overview of Textual Development and Advocacy (Amsterdam University Press - ISIM Papers series)

Muslim family law—and its principles regarding marriage, divorce, personal maintenance, paternity, and child custody—is the one of the most widely applied family law systems in existence today. A number of states have recently codified Muslim family law for the first time or have issued significant amendments or new laws, spurred in many cases by interventions from women’s rights groups and other advocacy organizations. Women and Muslim Family Laws in Arab States combines an examination of women’s rights under Muslim family law in Arab states across the Middle East with discussions of the public debates surrounding the issues that have been raised during these processes of codification and amendment. Drawing on original legal texts and explanatory statements as well as extensive state-based secondary literature, Welchman places these discussions in a contemporary global context that internationalizes the domestic and regional particularities of Muslim family law. Accompanied by a full bibliography and an appendix providing translated extracts of the laws under examination Women and Muslim Family Law considers laws from the Gulf States to North Africa in order to illustrate the legal, social, and political dynamics of the current debates. A number of Arab states have recently either codified Muslim family law for the first time, or have issued amendments or new laws which significantly impact the statutory rights of women as wives, mothers and daughters. In Women and Muslim Family Laws in Arab States Lynn Welchman examines women's rights in Muslim family laws in Arab states across the Middle East while also surveying the public debates surrounding the issues. The author considers these new laws alongside older statutes to comment on the patterns and dynamics of change both in the texts of the laws, and in the processes through by which they are drafted and issued. She draws on original legal texts and explanatory statements as well as on extensive secondary literature particular to certain states for an insight into practice, and on; interventions by women's rights organizations and other parties to the debate in the press and in advocacy materials. The discussions are set in the contemporary global context that 'internationalises' the domestic and regional debates. The book considers laws in states from the Gulf to North Africa in regard to their approaches to issues of codification processes and issues of and of registration, capacity and guardianship in marriage, polygyny, the marital relationship, divorce and child custody. It has a full bibliography and includes an annex providing translated extracts of the laws under examination. Welchman richt zich in Women and Muslim Family Laws in Arab States op de rechten van de vrouw binnen het islamitische familierecht in Arabische landen. Welchman analyseert hoe het familierecht is vastgelegd in wetboeken en de publieke debatten die daaruit voortkomen. In de afgelopen decennia is het islamitische familierecht in een aantal landen voor het eerst vastgelegd of zijn belangrijke wijzigingen doorgevoerd. De auteur bespreekt deze nieuwe wetten in het licht van oudere statuten om de dynamiek van het islamitische familierecht te duiden. Zij beroept zich niet alleen op juridische bronnen, maar schenkt ook ruim aandacht aan de juridische praktijk. Door de reacties van vrouwenrechtenorganisaties, media en juristen te analyseren, wijst ze op controversiële kwesties. Bijzonder aan dit boek is de internationale en vergelijkende benadering. De auteur bestudeert discussies rondom huwelijk, polygamie, scheiding en voogdij vanuit het perspectief van verschillende landen. Nationale debatten worden op deze manier geplaatst in een mondiale context. Het boek beschikt over een volledige bibliografie en bijlagen met vertalingen van de behandelde wetsfragmenten "Women and Muslim Family Laws in Arab States: A Comparative Overview of Textual Development and Advocacy combines an examination of women's rights in Muslim family law in Arab states from the Gulf to North Africa with discussions of the public debates surrounding the issues that are raised in processes of codification and amendment. A number of states have recently either codified Muslim family law, or have issued significant amendments or new laws on the subject. This study considers these new laws along with older statutes to comment on patterns and dynamics of change both in the texts of the laws and in the processes by which they are drafted and issued. It draws on original legal texts as well as on secondary literature for an insight into practice; interventions by women's rights organizations and other parties are drawn on to identify areas of the laws that remain contested. The discussions are set in the contemporary global context that internationalises the domestic and regional discussions."--book jacket.