Book: “Women in Muslim Family Law”

This book is concerned with Muslim family law itself-its classical formulation and modern reform-rather that its specific application by courts.

The book “Women in Muslim Family Law” is a new and Updated edition of the first author’s 1982 book of the same title. The main framework of the book has not been changed and a short section offering a comparative analysis of legal reform in several Muslim societies has been added. Although it remains a vital textbook to the understanding of the basic tenets of women’s legal status in Islamic law, it hardly discusses legal practices and political realities, which distance it considerably from its declared aim to understand ‘what does it mean to be a Muslim woman’ (p.xv). given the multiple positions women hold in Middle Eastern societies, the meaning of being a Muslim woman cannot, or rather should not, be reduced to her legal status or even to her status within the family. Moreover, given recent developments in the study of women and law in Islamic societies the usefulness of this book’s republication seems to this reviewer somewhat questionable.

The study of women in the Middle East, and specifically their interaction with family law in historical and contemporary societies had evolved significantly since the publication of this book’s first edition.

Table of Contents

1. The source of Islamic Law
2. Classical Muslim Family Law
3. Modern Muslim Family Law in comparative perspective
4. Toward a legal methodology for reform
5. Modern legal codes consulted
6. Suggested readings

Bibliographic information

Title: Women in Muslim Family Law

Author: John L. Esposito and Natana J. DeLong-Bas

Publisher: Syracuse University Press

Subject: Women and Islamic Law

Language: English

Length: 195 pages

ISBN: 0-8156-2908-7

Pub. Date: 12/28/2001