Review of Gender and Equality in Muslim Family Law: Justice and Ethics in the Islamic Legal Tradition, ed. Ziba Mir-Hosseini, Kari Vogt, Lena Larsen, and Christian Moe

Abstract

The conflict addressed by the book Gender and Equity in Muslim Family Law centres on how religious authority in Islam is understood. The authors charge that the classical position within Islam, with its adherence to the fiqh tradition as immutable, employs a patriarchal understanding of gender. This understanding of inequality is taken for granted by the authors of early Islamic jurisprudence and reflects the values of their day. The authors challenge the classical Islamic jurisprudence that said women were created for men, are defective in reason and faith, and are destined to live in a world where men are superior to women. The book analyses the political and hermeneutical obstacles to gender equality in Islam. It begins with an introduction by the four editors, Ziba Mir-Hosseini, Kari Vogt, Lena Larsen, and Christian Moe, who define the book’s purpose. They set out to provide a forum for diverse scholarly voices who address the problems for women in Islam that stem from the traditional understanding of the Arabic terms qiwāma and wilāya. These terms connote a form of guardianship that places men as heads over women as men are to serve as guardians and breadwinners in their respective homes. The guardian role, according to the traditional understanding, puts much power in men’s hands to supervise the decisions of women, especially when it comes to marriage. The authors of this book assume that classical jurists believed that women were incapable of making those decisions independently. In response, the authors of each chapter make their argument for various strategies of reform.