WUNRN
FEMIN IJTIHAD - FROM GENDER
ACADEMICS TO ACTIVISTS
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.
Case Law -
Women's Rights in Islamic Law
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.
Click
Here to Access Case Law Reviews
http://wrcaselaw.wordpress.com/
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.