Table Of ContentBRANDEIS SERIES ON GENDER, CULTURE, RELIGION, AND LAW
SERIES EDITORS: LISA FISHBAYN JOFFE AND SYLVIA NEIL
This series focuses on the conflict between women’s claims to gender equality and legal norms justified in terms of religious and
cultural traditions. It seeks work that develops new theoretical tools for conceptualizing feminist projects for transforming the
interpretation and justification of religious law, examines the interaction or application of civil law or remedies to gender issues in
a religious context, and engages in analysis of conflicts over gender and culture/religion in a particular religious legal tradition,
cultural community, or nation. Created under the auspices of the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute in conjunction with its Project on
Gender, Culture, Religion, and the Law, this series emphasizes cross-cultural and interdisciplinary scholarship concerning
Judaism, Islam, Christianity, and other religious traditions.
For a complete list of books that are available in the series, visit www.upne.com
Chitra Raghavan and James P. Levine, editors,
Self-Determination and Women’s Rights in Muslim Societies
Janet Bennion, Polygamy in Primetime:
Media, Gender, and Politics in Mormon Fundamentalism
Ronit Irshai, Fertility and Jewish Law: Feminist Perspectives on Orthodox Responsa Literature
Jan Feldman, Citizenship, Faith, and Feminism: Jewish and
Muslim Women Reclaim Their Rights
Self-Determination and Women’s Rights in
Muslim Societies
EDITED BY CHITRA RAGHAVAN AND JAMES P. LEVINE
BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY PRESS WALTHAM, MASSACHUSETTS
Brandeis University Press
An imprint of University Press of New England
www.upne.com
© 2012 Brandeis University
All rights reserved
For permission to reproduce any of the material in this book, contact
Permissions, University Press of New England, One Court Street,
Suite 250, Lebanon NH 03766; or visit www.upne.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Self-determination and women’s rights in Muslim societies /
edited by Chitra Raghavan and James P. Levine.
p. cm.—(Brandeis series on gender, culture, religion, and law)
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-61168-279-3 (cloth : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-1-61168-280-9
(pbk. : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-1-61168-281-6 (ebook)
1. Women—Legal status, laws, etc.—Islamic countries. 2. Women’s rights—Islamic countries. 3. Women’s rights—Religious
aspects—Islam. 4. Equality before the law—Islamic countries. I. Raghavan, Chitra. II. Levine, James P.
K644.S45 2012
323.3'4091767—dc23 2012010139
CONTENTS
Foreword
Introduction: Gender Equality, Change, and the Quest for Social Justice for Women in Muslim
Societies, by Chitra Raghavan and James P. Levine
Part 1: Politics of Change
1. The Politics of Abortion Policy in the Heterogeneous “Muslim World,” by Anissa Hélie
2. Promoting a Violence against Women Law in Morocco: Legislative Advocacy by
Grassroots-level NGOS, by Saida Kouzzi with Stephanie Willman Bordat
3. No Way Out: The Dual Subordination of Muslim Women in Indian Legal Culture, by Aziza
Ahmed
Part 2: Law and Culture
4. Reconsidering Talaq: Marriage, Divorce, and Sharia Reform in the Republic of Maldives,
by Anthony Marcus
5. Female Circumcision in Southeast Asia since the Coming of Islam, by William G. Clarence-
Smith
6. The Moudawana and Rural Marital Relationships: Reformed or Resolute? by Katja Zvan
Elliott
7. Negotiating Female Genital Cutting (Sunat) in Southern Thailand, by Claudia Merli
Part 3: The Law in Action
8. The Marriage Contract in the Maghreb: Challenges and Opportunities for Women’s Rights,
by Stephanie Willman Bordat with Saida Kouzzi
9. Unsatisfactory Aspects of Women’s Rights to Property in Uganda and Proposals for Reform,
by Anthony Luyirika Kafumbe
Part 4: Feminist Identities
10. Triangulating Reform in Family Law: The State, Religion, and Women’s Rights in
Comparative Perspective, by Yüksel Sezgin
11. Contemporary Iranian Feminisms: Definitions, Narratives, and Identity, by Roja Fazaeli
Epilogue
Glossary
Contributors
Index
FOREWORD
When John Jay College of Criminal Justice was founded in 1964 as a liberal arts college for
police officers, it would have been virtually unimaginable that the college would be
sponsoring an edited volume on the topics of self-determination and women’s rights in Muslim
societies. Seen from this perspective, the existence of this book, artfully edited by James P.
Levine, John Jay College’s former dean of research, and Chitra Raghavan, a member of our
Psychology Department, is a testament both to the maturation of the idea of criminal justice
education and the expanded reach of scholarly inquiry on the questions of justice. In this sense,
this book reflects the enduring power of the promise inherent in John Jay’s mission of
“educating for justice.”
Yet given recent events, a broader perspective seems relevant. Today, as we are riveted by
the forces of rebellion in the Middle East and northern Africa and inspired by the role of
women fighting for democracy, it is equally unimaginable that these topics would be
considered anything but central to an understanding of our modern era. The world is facing
new challenges that had not emerged on the research agenda a half-century ago. Although the
role of women in our society is a topic of timeless importance, the valiant struggles for self-
determination in the modern era and the complex struggle for gender equality in the Muslim
world combine to give scholarly treatments of women’s rights in Muslim societies a vibrant
immediacy. Likewise, although the relationship between different religious institutions and the
ideals of a pluralistic society is a topic that has occupied scholarly and public attention for
centuries, the modern challenge posed by the emergence of vibrant Muslim communities in
Western democracies has acquired an urgency that calls for objective reflection and academic
analysis. I know I speak for the editors and authors of this volume when I express the hope that
this book will contribute to a deeper understanding of these crosscurrents in our global village.
As president of John Jay College of Criminal Justice, I am particularly proud that this
volume reflects the scholarly contributions of the college’s Ninth Biennial International
Conference, held in Marrakesh, Morocco, in June 2010. This conference was designed and
sponsored in close collaboration with our Moroccan partners, the Advisory Council on Human
Rights, the Hassan II University in Casablanca, and Cadi Ayyad University in Marrakesh. The
conference brought together scholars from twenty-nine countries to address the theme of
“Societies in Transition: Balancing Security, Social Justice, and Tradition.” The presentations
at this multidisciplinary conference covered a remarkable array of topics, ranging from the
reform of policing in Nepal to female suicide bombers and the international criminal record
exchange. From this rich collection of presentations, we invited several presenters to transform
their work into the chapters represented in this thematic volume. When we first approached our
leading partner — Ahmed Herzenni at the Advisory Council on Human Rights — we realized
we had a common goal: that our conference would make lasting and substantive contributions
to the research literature on the issues embodied in the conference theme. I trust that this book
represents a fulfillment of that aspiration.
As John Jay College approaches its fiftieth anniversary, the topics addressed in this volume
resonate with the modern educational activities of the institution. We have recently created a
gender studies major and a human rights minor. In 2008 we hosted a research conference on
femicide that was attended by 450 people. Our students have traveled to Africa, Asia, Europe,
and Latin America for faculty-led study-abroad programs. Our faculty members are engaged in
research activities in Muslim countries, on topics ranging from women police officers in
Bahrain to Sharia reform in the Republic of Maldives. Last year, inspired in part by our
experience in Morocco, we created a collegewide series of lectures, artistic presentations, and
student activities titled “Mosques, Veils and Madrasses: Muslims and Institutions of Justice in
Pluralistic Societies.” So, knowing that this volume will also have ongoing relevance to the
education of our students and the research of our faculty, I wish to express my thanks, on behalf
of our college, for the scholarly contributions represented in this exemplary book.
Jeremy Travis
PRESIDENT, JOHN JAY COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
CHITRA RAGHAVAN AND JAMES P. LEVINE
Introduction
GENDER EQUALITY, CHANGE, AND THE QUEST
FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE FOR WOMEN IN MUSLIM SOCIETIES
The struggle for gender equality is neither new nor confined to Muslim societies. Non-Muslim
women have endured long histories of very particularized oppression justified by both
religious and secular male-driven laws (for example, Mir-Hosseini and Hamzić 2010).
Nonetheless, for a complex set of social, political, and economic reasons, Muslim states have
among the weakest human rights records, including those pertaining to gender equality
(Baderin 2007; Moustafa 2011).
While Islam is neither the cause of nor the solution to Muslim women’s gender inequality
(Chase 2007), religion has been increasingly recognized as a key element of human identity
(Moustafa 2011; Gates and Steane 2009) rather than a completely separate and private sphere
of ideology or faith. Religion cannot be ignored, sidestepped, or minimized in the quest for
change. Furthermore, in virtually all Muslim societies and Muslim states, family structures and
personal status codes crucial to attaining gender equality are influenced by Islamic codes to
some degree (Baderin 2007). Thus, any attempt to change women’s rights in these key areas
must engage with Muslim cultural contexts and Islamic discourse (Modizardeh 2006). Finally,
because Islamic discourse has always historically privileged social justice and has been
traditionally used as a call for action (Waardenberg 1985), such discourses can help provide a
familiar and trusted platform from which to orient improvement in women’s rights.
The twelve essays in this volume present the struggles to end oppression against women
from multidisciplinary perspectives in Muslim contexts spanning the globe. While there are
excellent books that cover comparative approaches to Muslim law from a jurisprudence
standpoint or from the view of a single culture (for example, Welchman 2007; Esposito and
DeLong-Bas 2004), this is the first volume to consider the topic from diverse methodologies in
a wide range of countries. We present studies that move beyond narrow conceptions of Muslim
societies within the Arab world to include Muslim majority and minority countries in Asia and
North Africa, such as India, Thailand, the Maldives, and Uganda. Scholars are drawn from
both the humanities and the social sciences — from anthropology, law, political science,
history, and psychology.
The use of ethnographic methodology drawn from these disciplines in several essays is
especially noteworthy. Ethnographic method — which relies on original field data and
interviews — has been slow to enter the discourse on Islam and women’s rights, in part
because of methodological differences across disciplines, and in part because of difficulty of
access to grass-roots women’s voices. By using original field data on issues pertaining to
marriage, divorce, property rights, and women’s sexuality, authors in this volume explore how
the debates around rights discourse, local cultures, and varying interpretations of Islamic legal
traditions are lived and challenged every day. Ethnographic data brings readers closer to the
lived world of women in Muslim societies and allows readers to understand the changes
women desire, how change happens, what obstacles confront women, and how they challenge
them. This focus on local realities can illuminate surprising disjunctions between politico-
legal reforms on the one hand and daily life on the other hand: diverse opinions at the local
level help explain why politico-legal reforms can have limited effect, how supposedly feminist
legislation can backfire (especially when the voices of women are not included in drafting the
reforms), and how popular Western assumptions about the slow pace of change in Muslim
societies are faulty.
This collection is also unique in that it brings larger theoretical frameworks of change
crucial to development in all types of societies to bear on specific Muslim contexts. This is an
especially important contribution to the literature on this topic, as it serves to correct two
interconnected Western prejudices. First, since 9/11, Western media and politicians have
primarily depicted Islam to be a dangerous and backward religion. These negative depictions
have sometimes served Western political ends. Lila Abu-Lughod (2002) describes how Laura
Bush, during her radio address on November 17, 2001, rejoiced that the War on Terrorism in
Afghanistan had freed Muslim women from hateful Taliban oppression, thus justifying the
invasion and occupation. In 2008, Geert Wilders, an anti-Islam member of the Dutch
Parliament, produced a short video called Fitna that depicted Islam as a religion that
inherently oppresses and continues to oppress women, a message that Muslim women
denounced almost immediately (Vis, van Zoonen, and Mihelj 2011). Popular literature, too,
validates “Islamofascism” (Gurel 2009): Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s controversial novels, such as The
Infidel and Caged Virgin, are tales of Islamic oppression as told by a courageous Muslim
woman who has suffered from it. Works such as these reinforce the stereotype of Islam as
retrograde, oppressive, and an enemy of women’s rights (Mayer 2007).
These and dozens, if not hundreds, of other attacks against Islam render the religion in the
form of caricatures. They promote the false belief that Muslim states are so different from
Western ones that the former are impervious to academic analysis and interpretation. This
denies the impressive scholarly output of the twentieth century on the history of change and
development across Islamic societies. More specifically, it erases the complex, vivid, and
everchanging relationship between Islam and feminism. Instead of a rich, dialogic debate that
