WUNRN
Musawah - For Equality in the Muslim
Family
JUSTICE THROUGH EQUALITY: BUILDING
RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE FOR LEGAL REFORM IN MUSLIM FAMILY LAWS
10/07/2013
- Muslim family laws are based on a jurisprudence shaped by past societies
very different from those of today. A major obstacle to gender equality is the
way in which classical Muslim jurists linked a husband's obligation to provide
fo his family with his wife's duty to obey him, a much-contested link
encapsulated in the notion of male guardianship, expressed in the legal terms
qiwama and wilaya.
Legal solutions designed to uphold justice in a tribal or kin-based society no longer do so for female breadwinners in a modern nation-state where both men and women are full citizens.
Those who promote family laws that discriminate agaist women, claim that Muslims must accept all provisions of these laws as divine and unchangeable.
Those who have interpreted the sacred texts of Islam, the Qur'an and the Sunna of the Prophet, have always done so in light of their social contexts, common assumptions, and understandings of justice, all of which are subject to change.
As realities and conceptions of justice have drastically changed, concerned Muslims are re-reading the texts to discover an ethical and egalitarian message that challenges traditional legal rules, a message of justice and equality for women and men.
To overcome any apparent contradiction between piety and equality, and the gap between secular and religious camps, Muslim women's movements are basing their work on legal reform on three references simultaneously: religion, rights, and the reality of women's lives. They are claiming their own rightful place among the diversity of views within Muslim traditions.
_________________________________________________________
JUSTICE THROUGH EQUALITY - BUILDING
RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE FOR LEGAL REFORM IN MUSLIM FAMILY LAWS
Direct Link to Full 32-Page 2013
Report:
____________________________________________________________