Men in Charge?: Rethinking Authority in Muslim Legal Tradition

by Ziba Mir-Hosseini, Mulki Al-Sharmani, Jana Rumminger

Overview

Both Muslims and non-Muslims see women in most Muslim countries as suffering from social, economic, and political discrimination, treated by law and society as second-class citizens subject to male authority. This discrimination is attributed to Islam and Islamic law, and since the late 19th century there has been a mass of literature tackling this issue.

Recently, exciting new feminist research has been challenging gender discrimination and male authority from within Islamic legal tradition: this book presents some important results from that research. The contributors all engage critically with two central juristic concepts; rooted in the Qur’an, they lie at the basis of this discrimination. One refers to a husband’s authority over his wife, his financial responsibility toward her, and his superior status and rights. The other is male family members’ right and duty of guardianship over female members (e.g., fathers over daughters when entering into marriage contracts) and the privileging of fathers over mothers in guardianship rights over their children.

The contributors, brought together by the Musawah global movement for equality and justice in the Muslim family, include Omaima Abou-Bakr, Asma Lamrabet, Ayesha Chaudhry, Sa‘diyya Shaikh, Lynn Welchman, Marwa Sharefeldin, Lena Larsen and Amina Wadud.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781780747163
Publisher:	Oneworld Publications
Publication date:	03/10/2015
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Ziba Mir-Hosseini is Professorial Research Associate at the Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Law, SOAS, University of London. A legal anthropologist, specialising in Islamic law, gender and development, she is a founding member of Musawah Global Movement for Equality and Justice in the Muslim Family. Her previous publications include Islam and Gender: The Religious Debate in Contemporary Islam and Men in Charge? Rethinking Authority in Muslim Legal Tradition.

Mulki Al-Sharmani is Academy of Finland research fellow and lecturer, Faculty of Theology, University of Helsinki, and research coordinator of the Musawah knowledge-building initiative to rethink the notion of male authority in Muslim family laws. Her research interests include Muslim family laws, Islamic feminism, gender, migration and transnationalism. She is the editor of Feminist Activism: Women’s Rights and Legal Reform (ZED Books, forthcoming 2014), and her Egyptian Muslim Family Laws: Legal Reforms and Gender Justice is under consideration for publication.

Jana Rumminger currently lives in Singapore and works with Musawah, the global movement for equality and justice in the Muslim family. Her focus is on issues related to reform of Muslim family laws and implementation of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). After graduating from Northeastern University School of Law, Jana spent a year as a Luce Scholar in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where she worked on advocacy and law reform at a local NGO, Women’s Aid Organization. She then served as programme officer with International Women’s Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific, an international NGO that works for the realization of women’s human rights through the lens of CEDAW and other international human rights instruments. She graduated from Princeton University in 1997 and earned an MS in Law, Policy and Society concurrently with her law degree at Northeastern.

Table of Contents

Foreword Zainah Anwar vii

Acknowledgements xi

Note on Translation and Transliteration xiii

Introduction Ziba Mir-Hosseini Mulki Al-Sharmani Jana Rumminger 1

Muslim Legal Tradition and the Challenge of Gender Equality Ziba Mir-Hosseini 13

The Interpretive Legacy of Qiwamah as an Exegetical Construct Omaima Abou-Bakr 44

An Egalitarian Reading of the Concepts of Khilafah, Wilayah and Qiwamah Asma Lamrabet 65

Producing Gender-Egalitarian Islamic Law: A Case Study of Guardianship (Wilayah) in Prophetic Practice Ayesha S. Chaudhry 88

Islamic Law, Sufism and Gender: Rethinking the Terms of the Debate Sádiyya Shaikh 106

Qiwamah and Wilayah as Legal Postulates in Muslim Family Laws Lynn Welchman 132

Islamic Law Meets Human Rights: Reformulating Qiwamah and Wilayah for Personal Status Law Reform Advocacy in Egypt Marwa Sharafeldin 163

'Men are the Protectors and Maintainers of Women…': Three Fatwas on Spousal Roles and Rights Lena Larsen 197

Understanding Qiwamah and Wilayah through Life Stories Mulki Al-Sharmani Jana Rumminger 219

The Ethics of Tawhid over the Ethics of Qiwamah Amina Wadud 256

About the Contributors 275

Index 280

Editorial Reviews

‘A powerful new weapon for Islamic gender warriors: a book examining how a single verse in the Quran became the basis for laws across the Islamic world asserting Muslim men’s authority – and even superiority – over women.’

Carla Power Time

‘Brimming with fact and insight, these critical and constructive essays by a global array of scholars and reformers focus our attention on how patriarchy functions in Muslim texts and contexts, and how it can be challenged. Their distinctive analyses converge and diverge, leading the reader to a new awareness of the range and power of Muslim feminist thought in the twenty-first century.’

Kecia Ali – Associate Professor of Religion

'A highly stimulating collection of pieces by notable scholars and activists that critically examines the concepts of qiwamah and wilayah in the Muslim legal tradition, Men in Charge provides a complex and clearly articulated analyses of the problems with the dominant exegetical and juristic understandings of gender relations. This volume ventures beyond a mere critique; it offers significant alternative readings of Islam’s epistemological sources and delivers significant insights into gender relations from diverse perspectives including Islam’s spiritual tradition and the lived realities of Muslim women with a view to offering ethical and just alternatives to the dominant and traditional understanding of gender relations. Men in Charge is, without a doubt, an extremely valuable contribution to the discourse on gender relations, equality, justice and women’s rights in Islam and among Muslims.'

Farid Esack – Professor in the Study of Islam and Head of Department of Religion Studies

‘Bar none, this is the best treatment of women and Islamic law that I have read in the past twenty years ... profound, eye-opening and even exhilarating. It is difficult for me to take seriously any student or scholar dealing with the subject of guardianship of men over women in Islam unless, or until, they have read and digested this book.’

Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl – Omar and Azmeralda Alfi Professor of Law

'Men in Charge? is bound to be a key scholarly text for anyone researching or studying law or Islam in general. It is a necessary book, one which is carefully designed to combat misconceptions and prejudice, and one which, most importantly, has a practical focus: all of the book’s contributors are writing for change. In reminding us that there is a difference between the Qur’an and the subsequent misogynist interpretations at the hands of certain actors (“Shari’ah court judges, community leaders, imams, women in leadership positions who perpetuate patriarchal structures of power, etc”), these authors pave the way for a brighter and fairer future for Muslim women.'

LSE Review of Books

'A highly stimulating collection of pieces by notable scholars and activists that critically examines the concepts of qiwamah and wilayah in the Muslim legal tradition, Men in Charge provides a complex and clearly articulated analyses of the problems with the dominant exegetical and juristic understandings of gender relations. This volume ventures beyond a mere critique; it offers significant alternative readings of Islam's epistemological sources and delivers significant insights into gender relations from diverse perspectives including Islam's spiritual tradition and the lived realities of Muslim women with a view to offering ethical and just alternatives to the dominant and traditional understanding of gender relations. Men in Charge is, without a doubt, an extremely valuable contribution to the discourse on gender relations, equality, justice and women's rights in Islam and among Muslims.'--Farid Esack - Professor in the Study of Islam and Head of Department of Religion Studies, University of Johannesburg

'A powerful new weapon for Islamic gender warriors: a book examining how a single verse in the Quran became the basis for laws across the Islamic world asserting Muslim men's authority - and even superiority - over women.'-- "Time, Carla Power"

'Bar none, this is the best treatment of women and Islamic law that I have read in the past twenty years ... profound, eye-opening and even exhilarating. It is difficult for me to take seriously any student or scholar dealing with the subject of guardianship of men over women in Islam unless, or until, they have read and digested this book.'--Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl - Omar and Azmeralda Alfi Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law

'Brimming with fact and insight, these critical and constructive essays by a global array of scholars and reformers focus our attention on how patriarchy functions in Muslim texts and contexts, and how it can be challenged. Their distinctive analyses converge and diverge, leading the reader to a new awareness of the range and power of Muslim feminist thought in the twenty-first century.'--Kecia Ali - Associate Professor of Religion, Boston University

'Men in Charge? is bound to be a key scholarly text for anyone researching or studying law or Islam in general. It is a necessary book, one which is carefully designed to combat misconceptions and prejudice, and one which, most importantly, has a practical focus: all of the book's contributors are writing for change. In reminding us that there is a difference between the Qur'an and the subsequent misogynist interpretations at the hands of certain actors ("Shari'ah court judges, community leaders, imams, women in leadership positions who perpetuate patriarchal structures of power, etc"), these authors pave the way for a brighter and fairer future for Muslim women.'--LSE Review of Books

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