WUNRN
Femin Ijtihad (FI) stands for “critical thinking” of gender notions and laws. As a project for Strategic Advocacy of Human Rights, we work to bridge the gap between the flourishing academic research on Muslim women’s rights and grassroots activism.
The objective of the Program is to develop lawyers’ authority in women’s
rights in Islamic law as well as their familiarity in case law and judicial
opinions in South Asian courts. The program will assist lawyers on how to cite,
deconstruct and confidently present women’s Islamic rights during case
preparation and litigation in courts, on a series of issues such as: maintenance, rape, zina, child
custody, right of mahr, divorce and others.
Background
There is a wealth of information on women’s rights in Islamic law and
traditions written and discussed by world-renowned scholars of Islamic law.
Over the years, academic ideas and theories have flourished the
re-understanding of women’s rights in law and society. However, often these
opinions are elaborated in lengthy and dense scholarly essays or case law
reports, and remain inaccessible to many lawyers and judges, in conflict and
post-conflict jurisdictions.
These ideas are invaluable to the work of legal activists and lawyers,
especially in areas where such information is essential yet extremely
inaccessible. We hope that through the Program, we can develop activists’ and
lawyers’ authority in citing and presenting Shariah arguments for gender equity
within the Islamic legal framework and world-view, through re-producing and
simplifying complex academic and legal reasoning through TOT workshops and
creative legal training.
We build and share a collection of landmark Pakistani, Indian and
Bangladeshi case law and judicial opinions on women’s legal issues. Through
this collection, we aim to disseminate them as training materials and practical
exercises for lawyers and activists on how High and Supreme Court Judges in
Hanafi’ jurisdictions have reasoned Islamic and statutory law to come to
gender-equitable outcomes in courts.
The objective is that of training lawyers how to construct legal arguments
from statutory, customary, Islamic and international law as have been
interpreted and applied in women’s rights cases by judges and lawyers in
Hanafi’ jurisdictions of South Asian courts.
The cases are selected on the basis of their relevance for researchers,
activists, lawyers and judges invested in:
1. Developing a comparative understanding and analysis of how law is
interpreted and applied in courts.
2. Monitoring judicial trends and judicial activism in higher and lower
courts.
3. Synthesizing how judges have reasoned both gender-equitable and
gender-biased conclusions.
4. Developing persuasive legal and Islamic arguments for the education,
training and advocacy programs of women’s rights activists and lawyers.
Content
1. Islamic legal theory: Sources of Islamic law; Quran, Sunnah and Fiqh;
Hadith Methodology
2. Gender in Islamic Law (excerpts from scholarship written by Islamic
authors, experts and lawyers on a series of topics that lawyers find most
pertinent to address.)
3. Case Law, Judicial reasoning and Opinions in
• This includes landmark cases on: child custody, polygamy, talaq, post divorce
maintenance, woman’s right of mahr,
domestic violence, zina,
rape, forced marriage and others.
• Excerpts from judicial decisions and scholarly commentary of each case.
• Citations of literature that comment on each case.
4. Delivery methods: how to cite Islamic sources and present them in a manner that is sensitive and resonant given the politicized and conservative environment.
_____________________________________________________
http://feminijtihad.com/case-law-program/q-a-case-law-project/
Q & A: Case Law Project
_________________________________