Struggling for a modern family law: a Khaleeji perspective

Reforms to Islamic family law have been carried out by many Muslim countries. The aim of this reform is to produce legal products that suit the needs of modern society in the country. One of the countries that has reformed Islamic family law is the United Arab Emirates. The United Arab Emirates is reforming Islamic Family Law by re-interpreting the texts of the Al-Qur'an and Hadith and based on the principles of family law in the Maliki school of thought. This research aims to find out the dynamics of Islamic family law reform in the United Arab Emirates. This research is a type of library research. Data was collected using documentation techniques, namely collecting written data in the form of scientific articles resulting from research and books related to research. The results of this research found that the United Arab Emirates first codified family law in 1985. Then in 2005 it reformed its family law by issuing Federal Law Number 28 of 2005 concerning Personal Legal Status. In carrying out family law reforms, the United Arab Emirates uses the talfiq and ijtihad methods. The elements of reform in Federal Law Number 28 of 2005 concerning Personal Legal Status include; marriage, marriage agreements and registration, the age of consent to marry and kafa'ah, the relationship between husband and wife, divorce, and khuluk.

Law: Modern Family Law, 1800-Present: Gulf States

Shariat contains rules appropriate for facing challenges at all times. It encompasses all aspects of human life including family laws. Family law as one of the important components in fiqh is based on evidence that is of juz’i and tafsili nature. This makes Islamic family law something dynamic. This article aims to view the position of Islamic family law in fiqh. It also intends to analyze the dynamicity of Islamic family law in facing current and future challenges, especially in Southeast Asia. Analysis was done through the content analysis method as descriptive and comparative. The findings of the analysis explained that Islamic family law is revealed in various forms of law bands appropriate to the current needs of the Islamic world. However, it is still in its basic framework which is to build a family system and consequently human social system based on Islamic law. Therefore, this dynamicity makes it remain relevant in facing current challenges. This study aims to analyze the dynamics of Islamic family law in facing current and future challenges. The analysis was made using descriptive and comparative content analysis methods. The results of the analysis explain that Islamic family law has been implemented in various forms and regulatory channels that are by the problems of the Islamic world. However, the rule is still within its basic framework, which is to compile the family system and so on the human social system based on Islamic law. Rather, it is this dynamic that makes it eternal and relevant to be ahead in facing today's challenges. The article also concludes that the Islamic family law that the state has fixed is dynamic with social and customary realities such as marriage, divorce, and women's and children's rights, especially in Southeast Asia.

The issue of polygamy in Islamic family law has become a complex topic of debate, particularly concerning gender equality and women's rights in the context of international law. Although polygamy is permitted under Islamic law, its application often conflicts with the gender equality principles expected in modern societies. This study aims to analyze the dynamics between Islamic family law traditions and international demands for gender justice regarding the practice of polygamy. The objective of this research is to understand how Islamic family law regulates polygamy and its impact on gender justice, as well as to explore how countries with Muslim majorities adapt international principles concerning women's rights in the practice of polygamy. This research employs a descriptive qualitative approach, utilizing data collection techniques that include in-depth interviews and document analysis. The countries selected for this study are Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Turkey, which represent various legal approaches to polygamy. The study reveals that while there are restrictions on the application of polygamy in some countries, the practice continues to create tension between tradition and gender equality demands. Countries with Muslim majorities need to reform their policies to protect women's rights and ensure that Islamic family law can be adapted in line with international principles.

The development of Islamic family law in Indonesia has undergone significant transformations since the colonial era to the modern imperialist era. During the Dutch colonial period, Islamic family law was governed in a limited manner, aligned with the colonial government's policies that prioritized customary law. However, with the emergence of religious courts, Islamic law gradually gained recognition within the framework of family law. Following independence, the codification of Islamic family law continued to evolve, marked by the enactment of the Marriage Law No. 1 of 1974 and the Compilation of Islamic Law. In the modern era, global challenges and the influence of international legal systems have introduced new dimensions to Islamic family law. Imperialist legal influences through international organizations and global financial institutions have also impacted the direction of family law policies in Indonesia. This article examines these changes from a historical, legal, and sociological perspective, highlighting the crucial roles of ulama (Islamic scholars), the government, and society in maintaining the existence of Islamic family law amidst social dynamics.

This paper considers the history of Islamic family law and its current applications in Turkey. As the heir of the last Muslim empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Republic of Turkey chose an abrupt revolution in its legal system; in 1926, it cut all ties to Islamic law, which was the main law of the land during the Ottoman Empire. Secularization of the law was not uncommon among modern nation states including those, which had Muslim majority populations. However, most of these Muslim majority states allowed Islamic law to govern the private law area, especially family laws. By contrast, the young Republic of Turkey did not allow this to happen and adopted the Swiss civil code including family law with limited revisions. Despite this rushed revolution, practices emanating from Islamic family legal norms did not cease among the people and continued until now. This created a dichotomy in the lives of people between applying Islamic family law and abiding by the secular civil code, which has caused several multidimensional legal problems in the areas of marriage and divorce, as well as their legal consequences in the areas of financial support and child custody. For the first time in republican history, in 2017, the government authorized muftīs to solemnize marriages. This is seen as the only direct authority given to muftīs in a legal matter, which indirectly opens a door for applying Islamic family law in modern legal life in Turkey. In addition, family mediation will soon have some presence in the legal system. There is no direct reference, however, to Islamic family law in government official documents congruent with these recent developments. There also is significant potential for incorporating the principles of family mediation and arbitration (taḥkīm) based on Islamic legal principles. This paper first gives a brief history of Islamic family law in Turkey as well as its effect on the civil codes and applications and then evaluates these recent changes. These are preceded by a brief note on the constitutional and legal frameworks currently in force in Turkey.

As an Islamic country, Islamic family law reform in Malaysia is experiencing various dynamics. This article aims to examine the genealogy, reform, and products of Islamic family law in the field of marriage (munakahat) in Malaysia. The authors find that Malaysia’s Islamic law reform is divided into three periods using literature research. In the Malay period, Islamic values were generally embedded in the law in Malaysia. During the British colonial period, English law had dominated and was used as common law, which was absorbed in various legislation and jurisprudence in Malaysia. It was only after independence that efforts to reform and codify Islamic family law began, marked by the stipulation of the jurisdiction of the federal territorial government and the territorial government into thirteen states. The codification of family law began with establishing a committee to amend Islamic law and be guided by other Islamic countries. The authors find four areas of marriage that have been reformed in Malaysia, namely the age limit for marriage, marriage registration, polygamy, and divorce. Among the four areas of marriage law, the authors find slight differences in regulations on the technical and material grounds in each state in Malaysia.

Family Law Reform in Muslim Countries is still a debate in the Muslim World Community because it considers Islamic Family Law and Family Law to have no equality, This article aims to know the renewal and transformation of Family Law in the Islamic world. This research is a literature, with a type of analytical descriptive research, The approach used is interdisciplinary, namely comparative, juridical, philosophical, and historical approaches, while this research source uses primary sources of secondary source Law books such as theses, dissertations, and journal articles, Results of Factors Affecting the Renewal of Islamic Family Law in the World are, Politics, Economics, Social Law, Islamic Law Reform Methods are, Siyasyah al-Shar'iyyah, Takhayyur, Takhsis al-Qhadha, The old theory of Ijtihad, Ijma, Qiyas, Maslahah Mursalah, Sadd' al-Dhari'ah The Reform of Islamic Law in the World is, Polygamy, Inheritance, Marriage Registration and Marriage Agreement The transformation of Islamic Family Law in Indonesia is Law Number 1 of 1974 concerning Marriage, State Sheet Number 1 of 1974, Supplement Number 3019/1974. Presidential Instruction Number 1 of 1991 concerning the Compilation of Islamic Law which became a standard reference for judges in deciding cases. Law of 2002 concerning Child Protection, Law Number 23 of 2004 concerning Domestic Violence, Law Number 12 of 2022 concerning Criminal Acts of Sexual Violence and these laws and regulations are in line with Islamic Family Law

This article seeks for two essential resources of promoting the moderateness of Indonesian Islam, which are still underdeveloped in the existing literatures. Namely, mainstreaming women’s narrative as a basis of analysis of research about Indonesian Islam and examining the practices of Islam in everyday life of Muslims across the archipelago. Based on writer’s experiences in conducting ethnographic research regarding Islamic family law, this article aims at discussing further how women’s inclusion generates particular model of understanding and application of Islamic family law. As a matter of fact, family law is the most intimate legal practices in everyday relations for Muslim and thus, involve both men and women. Moreover, Islamic law is not merely about doctrines and universal resources, but also about interpretation and local practices. This article argues that the presence of women’s voices and experiences in the epistemology of Islamic law, which is often excluded, is one of primary factors of ensuring how Islamic family law can provide more justice and equality to women’s interests. The practices of Muslim family law in eastern Indonesian where women’s authority and power are continuously negotiated can be considered as among initial characteristic of the moderateness of Indonesian Islam.

This study aims to determine the history of the development and reform of Islamic family law in Indonesia and Malaysia. The writing method of this article uses a comparison. It compares the history of the development and reform of Islamic family law in Indonesia and Malaysia. As a result, Indonesia and Malaysia have experienced dynamic developments and reforms in the Islamic family law pre and post-independence. Both countries are Muslim-majority countries, so Islamic law, especially the Islamic family, will develop over time. As for the difference, in Indonesia, even though the Muslim majority is more than 85%, discussion of the draft law on Muslim marriage or family always becomes an issue. It is related to establishing the State Foundation of Pancasila, which accommodates all religions. After the 1998 reform, democracy was broadly applicable. It causes the desire to formalize Islamic teachings into a positive legal system to become increasingly stronger. In Indonesia, there is some difficulty in reforming family law regarding the issue between Islamists, nationalists, Muslims, and followers of other religions. It differs from Malaysia, which established Islam as the official state religion. Malaysia is a Muslim-majority country in Southeast Asia and became the most dynamic in reviewing its Muslim family law provisions. Keywords: Islam, family law, history, Indonesia, Malaysia

Family law occupies a very important position in Islamic law, related to its very significant contribution in the effort to create an orderly and harmonious society. That is why in many Islamic countries or where the majority of their citizens are Muslim, especially Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, the field of family law always gets high appreciation which is manifested in the form of ongoing efforts to legislate Islamic law into positive law into statutory products. Renewal of Islamic family law in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam is a necessity. In terms of the age limit for marriage, there are differences in the three countries. years, contained in Deed 303 of the 1984 Islamic family law section 8, Brunei Law Chapter 217 Chapter 17 Islamic Family law section IV article 35 letter (6) says 18 years for men and 16 years for women so for those who prevent marriage above age will be penalized. Even though they both belong to the Syafii school of thought, their views on fiqh, culture, and society are different, so there are differences in the determination of age limits between the three countries.Keywords: renewal, family law, age limit for marriage

In Indonesia, family law is well regulated in law or government regulations. In this case, with the increasingly complex family law issues supported by divorce rates, which reached 398,245 in 2015, then in 2017, it increased to 415,898, and with the development of science and technology, so many problems arise both in terms of muamalah or family law itself. For this reason, structuring is needed through legal reform that makes it follow what is needed by the wider community. Starting from this, this paper will discuss the arrangement of Islamic family law and the dynamics of family law reform in Indonesia. This study aims to provide an overview of the arrangement of Islamic families and Islamic family law reform in Indonesia. This paper uses qualitative research methods that are library researching. The data in this article was obtained from books, journals, articles, magazines related to the structure and dynamics of family law reforms in Indonesia. After the data is collected, the writer analyzes with data analysis techniques, namely data reduction, data presentation, and concluding. The results of the study show that the structure and dynamics of family law in Indonesia, when viewed in the context of Islamic law reform, reveal a unique and problematic portrait of reform. It is said so because Indonesia applies three legal systems, namely customary law, Islamic law, and Western law.

This paper intends to describe the reconstruction paradigm offers family law of Islam in Indonesia. Islamic Family Law is a representation of the overall Islamic law that has grown and developed based on the classic paradigm literalistik. Reliability paradigm literalistik often swayed by the paradigm of contemporary liberal. Conflict paradigmatic implications for disparity between empirical and normative law and Islamic family law actuality the loss itself. Abnormalities and the condition of the conflict that began with the anomaly requires a knowledge revolution. Revolution stimulated the birth of a new paradigm of knowledge, which is critical integrative paradigm. Paradigm is a critical integrative paradigm underlying social facts, social definitions and paradigms of social behavior with Islamic theological value.

In The Politics of Islam, Birol Baskan sets out on the ambitious task of explaining the relationship between the Muslim Brotherhood and the governments of five Gulf states: Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). He traces what began as a symbiotic relationship between these states and the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1950s before chronicling a divergence of attitudes among the Gulf’s ruling elites toward the Muslim Brotherhood today, marking key events like the Iranian Revolution, Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait, the 9/11 attacks, and the Arab Spring uprisings in the 2010s as critical junctures in this change. This comparative and chronological approach is useful, although Saudi Arabia, as Baskan highlights, emerges as an outlier. Baskan explains the unique continued relevance of Saudi religious actors by the fact that their influence predated the construction of institutions of the modern nation-state.Baskan also finds that “the level of state religiosity seems to have little impact on whether Islamism generates opposition in a country or not” (2–3, emphasis original). To this end, he investigates literature about Islamism’s oppositionality―an understudied topic and one that certainly deserves attention, particularly when writing and thinking about state-Muslim Brotherhood relations. In his view, Islamism “seeks to expand the scope of Islam beyond the specific areas explicitly covered by the Islamic law” and as a result sets out to compel the state that all rules and norms should be derived from Islamic sources (11). Meanwhile, modern states have sought to harness the political and social capital of religion, and thus, even if they try to put in place religious rules, as in many Gulf states, they often run into Islamist opposition. And yet the Muslim Brotherhood has not become oppositional in all cases; Baskan notes Bahrain and Qatar as examples.After an introduction in which he discusses Islamism as an oppositional movement and state-religion relations in the Gulf, Baskan’s book has five substantive chapters. The first of these (chapter 2) describes how the Gulf states were founded and highlights the role of religious scholars in the formation of educational and judicial systems. It is interesting that Baskan begins his analysis in the pre-independence period. In my own book tracing state-Muslim Brotherhood relations in Kuwait, Qatar, and the UAE, I began after independence and indeed after the realization of oil wealth. Baskan’s longer historical lens, however, gives a sense of the extent to which Ottoman and British legacies affected state-religion relations in the Gulf, since religious figures held political capital in Saudi Arabia long before the advent of the modern Saudi state.The second substantive chapter (chapter 3) covers the period 1950–70 and shows how the regional political context in which Arab nationalism was ascendant as the oppositional political ideology and the choice of all five of the states covered to welcome members of the Muslim Brotherhood who escaped repression elsewhere in the region―namely from Egypt under Gamal Abdel Nasser. Indeed, it was during this period that all five of the states under study in the volume were aligned in their policies toward the Muslim Brotherhood, welcoming many of its members from abroad to staff nascent educational and judicial sectors.Chapter 4 examines the period between 1980 and the late 2000s, tracing how domestic reforms in education and justice, sectors in which members of the Muslim Brotherhood had once been active, changed how these four states interacted with Islamists, particularly as Islamists accrued power in both sectors. In this discussion, however, Baskan appears to conflate modernity with secularism. The Gulf states, not to mention the United States, prove that religiosity can be interwoven into modern, purportedly secular, institutions. In his words, “all the Gulf states issued man-made laws to regulate increasingly complex modern life. This does not suggest, however, that they intentionally pursued state secularization. It rather suggests that the Islamic law is insufficiently developed to regulate all, new or old, fields of human life and in fact grants rulers extensive discretion to regulate a range of them” (69–70). I find it difficult to accept the notion that religion necessarily is at odds with modernity or modernizing reforms, especially considering that Islamic law exists as a living and adaptable body rather than a strictly codified legislative text. Baskan later states that “the modern state inescapably confronts religious actors” (215)―a claim that I believe can be contested, since modernity does not always imply secularism or Westernization, as it has in many countries of the Gulf. Further, because much of Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) is made by humans rather than coming directly from God, it is perhaps uniquely open to reform.The fifth chapter focuses on geopolitics during the same period (1980s to the late 2000s), particularly the fall of Gamal Abdel Nasser, the Iranian Revolution in 1979, Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, and the 9/11 attacks. In so doing, Baskan discusses ways in which regional events fundamentally shaped how Gulf regimes viewed Islamists, including the Muslim Brotherhood. Increasingly, Islamists came to be seen as part of a viable political opposition (except in Bahrain and Qatar) in the aftermath of the fall of Arab nationalism. It was during this period that the Gulf states developed different attitudes toward the Brotherhood, ranging from suspicion in those states in which the Brotherhood became oppositional (Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the UAE), and co-optation in states in which the Brotherhood was a potential partner (Bahrain and Qatar).The sixth chapter focuses on the Arab Spring, when state-Muslim Brotherhood relations shifted sharply in the five states under study, from a loyalist Muslim Brotherhood in Bahrain and Qatar, to a tolerated Brotherhood in Kuwait, to the Muslim Brotherhood’s being designated as a terrorist organization in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. He uses statements of specific Islamist figures to tell the story of how relations change, yet not all of the figures he uses are members of the Muslim Brotherhood. This approach also overlooks existing scholarship on Islamism in the Gulf as well as primary source material from the local organizations themselves. In Saudi Arabia, Baskan uses the figure of Salman al-ʿAwdah, in the UAE―Muhammad al-Siddiqi, in Kuwait―Tareq al-Suwaidan, and in Qatar―Shaykh Yusuf al-Qaradawi. In my view, it would have been more effective to analyze what Muslim Brotherhood movements did and the statements which they produced in the wake of the events of the Arab Spring. Also, the use of Egyptian-born Shaykh Qaradawi to give a sense of the position of Qatari Islamists points to a larger issue about the importance of indigenous religious scholarship in the Gulf.While Baskan makes an important point about a lack of indigenous religious scholars at independence in the Gulf states, I would argue that the field has changed significantly in intervening decades, with many Bahraini, Kuwaiti, and Qatari religious figures having emerged in their own right in the past decades. Throughout the volume, Baskan, in my view, underestimates the role of Gulf-based Islamists in the field of Islamism writ large. For instance, he states “The Arab Gulf region did not produce any Islamists who made a contribution to the development of Islamism” (47). This statement dismisses the substantial scholarship produced by Gulf-based Islamists ranging from the extreme (Osama bin Laden), to the quietist Salafi strand, which has found a home in Kuwait since the 1980s, to ideologues of the Sahwa movement in Saudi Arabia. Baskan further claims that a “home-grown” Muslim Brotherhood organization emerged only in Bahrain and Kuwait (88), denying the agency of local Islamists in other countries he studies. While the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist movements in the Gulf were certainly influenced by outsiders initially, the Gulf has produced its own types of Islamists and strand of Islamist ideology.All in all, Baskan’s book provides a helpful reference and overview of state-Muslim Brotherhood relations in five Gulf states, a huge undertaking to be applauded. He claims that modern states inevitably face opposition from religious actors such as the Muslim Brotherhood, as they try to expand control over new state institutions (especially in education and the judiciary), which once were controlled by religious actors. Nonetheless, variation exists among the Gulf states, as the Brotherhood did not become oppositional in all five states―an important finding of the book. Still, Baskan leaves some important issues unaddressed. For instance, is authoritarianism rather than modernity to blame for the attempted state takeover of arms of the state once ceded to religious figures? And while Saudi Arabia maintains a cohesive native religious class, how much independent political capital does it still retain as the state seeks to take over more areas previously under their control? At what point does coherence no longer imply political capital?Further, Baskan recognizes throughout the book that the states under study have massive financial resources, which they used to help finance state modernization, to try to buy off political discontent during the Arab Spring, and to fund the Morsi and later the Sisi governments in Egypt after the Arab Spring. However, he does not explicitly engage the academic literature linked to rentierism, which I believe may have helped to show how state-Muslim Brotherhood relations in the Gulf are qualitatively different from those elsewhere in the region. He mentions these issues tangentially in a brief conclusion, but the book would benefit from a broader assessment and recognition of how the Muslim Brotherhood operates as an oppositional movement in rentier states of the Gulf. This kind of assessment could then be tied to a more general discussion of opposition in such states. The result, in my judgment, would have been a very useful contribution to Gulf studies.To be fair, Baskan never sets out to make a contribution Gulf studies specifically, seeking instead to question the oppositional nature of Islamist movements and the degree to which opposition might be predicted in certain contexts in the region. This he largely succeeds in doing.

The elevated divorce rate in Purwokerto has become a focal point for the local government due to its adverse repercussions. This research has identified five primary factors contributing to divorce, encompassing education, economic status, religion, access to healthcare, and environmental factors. This study employs empirical legal methods analyzed in accordance with Islamic family law theory. In-depth interviews were conducted with informants, as well as literature studies and data collection techniques. The results showed two critical findings. First, Islamic family law makes it clear that although divorce is legal, God views it negatively. Divorce is considered a final option when mediation becomes unfeasible. For a divorce to be valid, it must meet various criteria, such as guidelines for property division and child custody. Additionally, the Qur'an and Hadith discuss the five legitimate reasons for divorce. Secondly, the issue of divorce is regulated by normative positive law. However, no legal regulations are specifically available at the local government level to support efforts to reduce divorce rates based on the five leading causes. In particular, the five causes of divorce are also discussed based on relevant normative regulations and support from previous studies. The two sources of family law and Islamic law have different views regarding the legal requirements of divorce and its scope. However, in terms of similarities, both sources of family law and Islamic law support efforts to protect children and empower women victims of divorce. With national legal regulations, the government is responsible for providing effective rules to resolve the causes of high divorce rates legally.