Carving Out a Public Space for Multiple Interpretations of Islamic Law: A Look at the Conference on “Women’s Rights: Beyond Rhetoric”

Abstract

The Los Angeles Muslim community, positioned in a Western metropolis, thriving with intersectional views of transnational migrants from firstand second-generational backgrounds, mostly Egyptian organizational and clerical leadership, and a burgeoning population of white and black American converts, is contemplating the contemporary evolution of a seemingly intractable Islamic law and its implications for Muslim women living in the diaspora. A conference titled “Women’s Rights: Beyond Rhetoric”—venue provided by the Office of Religious Life and the Center on Public Diplomacy at the University of Southern California, and intellectual fuel and platform provided by the Islamic Center of Southern California—ventured to reinsert public debate and multiplicity into the rigid, monolithic, modern formulations of Islamic law’s jurisdiction in society. The momentous questions on women’s rights posed by LA’s Muslim community gained enough propulsion that on October 17, 2009, some 50 to 100 people, mostly those active in the Muslim community and with a scattering of students, sat in rows filling USC’s Salvatori Auditorium, facing the stage and the shared knowledge that would rise from it. Those taking the stage chose the tools of social justice, agency, and public engagement in place of the reactionary, defensive channels often used to demean and reject Western reclamations of Islamic social viability, while still questioning