Family Law in Islam: Divorce, Marriage and Women in the Muslim World

Maaike Voorhoeve

Mar 2012 · Bloomsbury Publishing

About this ebook

In both the West and throughout the Muslim world, Islamic family law is a highly and hotly debated topic. In the Muslim World, the discussions at the heart of these debates are often primarily concerned with the extent to which classical Islamic family law should be implemented in the national legal system, and the impact this has on society. Family Law in Islam highlights these discussions by looking at public debates and legal practice. Using a range of contemporary examples, from polygamy to informal marriage (zawaj 'urfi), and from divorce with mutual agreement (khul') to judicial divorce (tatliq), this wide-ranging and penetrating volume explores the impact of Islamic law on individuals, families and society alike from Morocco to Egypt and from Syria to Iran. It thus contains material of vital importance for researchers of Islamic Law, Politics and Society in the Middle East and North Africa."

About the author

Maaike Voorhoeve is Research Fellow at the University of Amsterdam, where she teaches Islamic law and family law in the Muslim World. She holds a doctorate in legal anthropology, which concentrated upon contemporary Tunisian judicial practices in the field of divorce. She specialises in the legal anthropology of the Muslim World, focusing on Tunisia.