The eighteen essays in this volume cover a wide range of material and reevaluate women's studies and Middle Eastern studies, Muslim women and the Shari'a courts, the Ottoman household, Dhimmi communities, children and family law, morality, and violence.

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. -- Publisher description.

In both the West and throughout the Muslim world, Islamic family law is a highly and hotly debated topic. In the Muslim World, the discussions at the heart of these debates are often primarily concerned with the extent to which classical Islamic family law should be implemented in the national legal system, and the impact this has on society. Family Law in Islam highlights these discussions by looking at public debates and legal practice. Using a range of contemporary examples, from polygamy to informal marriage (zawaj 'urfi), and from divorce with mutual agreement (khul') to judicial divorce (tatliq), this wide-ranging and penetrating volume explores the impact of Islamic law on individuals, families and society alike from Morocco to Egypt and from Syria to Iran. It thus contains material of vital importance for researchers of Islamic Law, Politics and Society in the Middle East and North Africa."

In the first book to address the dilemma faced by Jordanian women in the workforce, Amira El-Azhary Sonbol delineates the constraints that exist in a number of legal practices, namely penal codes that permit violence against Muslim women and personal status laws that require a husband’s permission for a woman to work. Leniency in honor crimes and early marriage and motherhood for girls are other factors that extend the patriarchal power throughout a woman’s life, and ultimately deny her full legal competency. Significantly, Sonbol notes that society’s accepting as “Islamic” the legal constraints that control women’s work constitutes a major barrier to any effort to change them, even though historically the Islamic sharia actually encourages women’s work, and despite the fact that Muslim women have contributed materially to their society’s economy. The author covers new ground as she effectively illustrates how Jordanian laws governing gender, family, and work combine with laws and legal philosophies derived from tribal, traditional, Islamic, and modern laws to form a strict patriarchal structure.

Expands and updates family law as it pertains to women with regard to marriage, divorce and inheritance throughout the Middle East.This second revised edition of John L. Esposito's landmark work expands and updates coverage of family law reforms -- marriage, divorce, and inheritance -- throughout the Middle East, North Africa, South and Southeast Asia. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

This second edition of John L. Esposito's landmark book expands and updates coverage of family law reforms (in marriage, divorce, and inheritance) throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and South and Southeast Asia, and analyzes the diverse interpretation of Muslim family law, identifying shifts, key problems, and challenges in the twenty-first century.