Justice and Beauty in Muslim Marriage: Towards Egalitarian Ethics and Laws

Description

The model of marriage constructed in classical Islamic jurisprudence rests on patriarchal ethics that deny gender equality and privilege men. Notwithstanding reforms introduced over the past few decades, this worldview persists in many contemporary Muslim family laws and in gender norms in various contexts. Yet the changing realities of Muslim families, related to gender roles and the needs of spouses and their children, show the limitations of such ethics and laws. In this volume, scholars explore how egalitarian Muslim marriages and gender relations can be supported from within Islamic tradition. Brought together by the Musawah movement for equality and justice in the Muslim family, they examine ethics and laws related to marriage from the perspective of the Qur'an, Sunnah, Islamic legal tradition, historical practices and contemporary family law reform processes. Together they conceptualise how contemporary Muslim marital relations can be grounded in equality, mutual well-being and the core Qur'anic principles of 'adl (justice) and ihsan (goodness and beauty).

Ziba Mir-Hosseini is Professorial Research Associate at the Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Law, SOAS, University of London. Mulki Al- Sharmani is Associate Professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Helsinki. Jana Rumminger is a legal researcher and writer who focuses on human rights, gender and Islamic law. Sarah Marsso is a feminist anti-racism activist and Musawah's Knowledge Building Coordinator.

'This exciting collection of essays by an impressive array of experts takes Musawah's mission from the critique of injustice and patriarchy in Muslim marriages and family laws to the building of a vision that yearns and works for divinely inspired justice and beauty in Muslim families and communities. The book is bold, radical, and groundbreaking. It will be an indispensable tool for Muslim activists the world over.' -- Juliane Hammer, Associate Professor, Department of Religious Studies, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 'Justice and Beauty in Muslim Marriage addresses the ethical emptiness and lack of poetic sensibility in the patriarchal discourse on women's rights... The findings of the book, that Muslim marriage laws and normativity are not in line with contemporary understandings of justice, promise a hermeneutic shift towards egalitarian legislation and pluralist normativity.' -- Muhammad Khalid Masud, former Chairman, Council of Islamic Ideology, Pakistan, and former Academic Director, International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World, Leiden University 'Teeming with provocative and restorative ideas, this book reframes the practice of marriage as it is lived in all its complexities. Drawing on tradition and experience, marriage now becomes a wholesome way of self-fulfillment as expressed by these courageous authors. It is a very timely intervention and much needed. A must-read.' -- Ebrahim Moosa, Mirza Family Chair of Islamic Thought and Muslim Societies, University of Notre Dame