Background. Islamic marital jurisprudence : Marriage (zawaj زواج) * Divorce (talaq طلاق, Khulʿ : خلع )

Marriage and Divorce Cornell icon [This entry contains two sub-entries: Legal Foundations Modern Practice] Source: The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World.

Gender and Sexuality in Islam Cornell icon [Listing from the Cornell online catalog]

Khul‘ [divorce) practices in the modern world. Cornell icon IN: a special edition of Islamic Law and Society,Volume 26 (2019): Issue 1-2 (Jan 2019)

Marriage in transition : gender, family and Muslim social reform in colonial India / by Asiya Alam.

Gender Equality and Women’s Rights in the Constitutions of the Middle Eastern and North African Countriesslamic marriage contract.
in Oriente Moderno Volume 98 (2018): Issue 2 (Sep 2018)

TALAQ [divorce] | Islamic Sharia / , UK

Divorce - Islamic perspective - question and answers

Marriage and Divorce: Modern Practices oxfordislamicstudies.com

8 Legal Issues for Islamic Marriage and Divorce oxfordscholarship.com

Importance of Marriage in Islam al-islam.org.

Islamic Philosophy of Marriage www.muslim-marriage-guide.com

Legal Marriage Age in Muslims and World Wide www.muslim-marriage-guide.com

Religions - Islam: Weddings bbc.co.uk*An 1874 Islamic marriage contract.

Gender, Islam and judgeship in Egypt International Journal of Law in Context [The issue of women serving as judges has been a contentious one in Egyptian society for nearly eight decades. While other Muslim majority countries started appointing women judges as early as the 1950s and 1960s, it was not until 2003 that the Egyptian government announced the appointment of its first ever female judge. Despite the approval of Egypt's religious scholars, her appointment was fiercely contested, among both the general public and the legal profession.]

Marriage in Islam [From Wikipedia]

Women and Gender in the Middle East and North Africa ...Mapping the Field and Addressing Policy Dilemmas at the Post2011 Juncture',MENARAFinal Reports, n. 3, March 2019.

The Women Bringing Sex Ed to the Arab World / The New York Times Thursday, November 18, 2021. Activists are using social media to do what Arab countries have failed to do: teach women about their bodies. They’re aiming for a cultural awakening.

For Women in Mauritania, Divorce Is Cause for Joy, Not Sorrow / By Ruth Maclean and Laura Boushnak
1,571 words 4 June 2023. The New York Times

Guides

Recommended Reading

Islamic ruling on male and female circumcision (A collection of three brief scholarly treatises on male and female circumcision as viewed in the body of Islamic law. Noting the lack of doubt that male circumcision is a legitimate practice, the papers largely address common misunderstandings about the Islamic ruling in the case of daughters. In publishing these treatises, the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean aims to issue an authoritative and conclusive statement about the practice of female circumcision in Islamic countries.)

Introduction to Muslim Sexual Ethics. This web site is part of the Feminist Sexual Ethics Project at Brandeis University

Marriage In The Arab World - Population Reference Bureau

Transgender Muslims Find a Home for Prayer in Indonesia The New York Times/By JON EMONT DEC. 22, 2015

Sisters in Islam Sisters in Islam provides a wide range of information resources on marriage, divorce, domestic violence in Muslim societies.

Gender, Sexuality, and Islam under the Shadow of Empire / Saadia Toor

Women’s Rights in Islam Regarding Marriage and Divorce Journal of Law and Practice, April 11, 2011.Source: WHO 2013.

The Middle Eastern Marriage Crisis . NOW on PBS

In Egypt, the Law itself is an Enemy of Women's Rights / Juan Cole, Feb 24, 2015.

Women of the Islamic State [Quilliam Foundation] Translation: Women in the Islamic State – a manifesto.

Women and Saudi Arabia's Male Guardianship System | HRW "We all have to live in the borders of the boxes our dads or husbands draw for us."

Saudi Arabia: Male Guardianship Boxes Women In | Video

Domestic Violence

An Islamic Perspective on Domestic Violence / Azizah Y. al-Hibri. Fordham International Law Journal, Volume, 27, Issue (1) 2003. Article 8

A comparison of acceptance of domestic violence in select Arab and Muslim majority countries graphAcceptance of domestic violence by women in some Islamic countries, according to UNICEF (2013). [UNICEF Information site (Web Archive Data)].

Domestic Violence and Shari’a:Comparative Study of Muslim Societies in the Middle East, Africa and Asia / Report by Lisa Hajjar.

Introduction of Violence Against Women Sisters in Islam website with range of resources on violence against women in Islamic societies.

Mapping stoning in Muslim contexts Execution by stoning is still carried out in various parts of the Muslim world (either by state or non-state actors) as a punishment for zina (adultery and fornication), even though there is no direct reference to this form of punishment in the Quran. February 2012.

Muslim victims of domestic violence 'risk alienation if services cut' Report from The Guardian, 5th Sep, 2014.

Women and the Law in Islamic Societies: Legal Responses to Domestic Violence in Saudi Arabia and Morocco / Cybèle Cochran. © 2009 The Fletcher School.


Honour Killings

Honour crimes BBC Ethics Guide.
Islam should not be tarnished by honour killings ABC, The Drum, 10 February 2012.
Mapping stoning in Muslim contexts Execution by stoning is still carried out in various parts of the Muslim world (either by state or non-state actors) as a punishment for zina (adultery and fornication), even though there is no direct reference to this form of punishment in the Quran. February 2012.
In Turkey, 'Honor Killing' / Washington Post Foreign Service
Stop Killing and Stoning Women (SKSW) Publications: Policy Briefing Series I. The Global Campaign to Stop Killing and Stoning Women

Women's Rights to Divorce and Inheritance (talaq طلاق, Khulʿ : خلع ) & ميراث

Khul‘ [divorce) practices in the modern world. Cornell icon IN: a special edition of Islamic Law and Society,Volume 26 (2019): Issue 1-2 (Jan 2019)

What Muslims Around the World Think About Women's Rights, in Charts : Insights from the massive Pew survey of adherents of the world's second-largest religion. Olga Khazan .

Women's Rights in Islam Regarding Marriage and Divorce William Mitchell Journal of Law & Practice.


Divorce rates in Islamic countries graph


Fatawa - Does a divorced woman and her child inherit (Dar al-Ifta, Cairo, Egypt)

Polygamy - Polygyny in Islam

World map showing legality of polygamy Polygyny is legal. Legal status unknown or ambiguous. Polygyny generally illegal, but its practice not fully criminalized. Polygamy outlawed or abolished and its practice criminalized.

"Men having many wives?

Men and women can have as many spouses as they can fit into a lifetime; but this is not generally approved. Women are requested to have only one husband at a time (there is evidence that wealthy Arab women were polyandrous before the coming of Islam - certainly wealthy men were polygynous), and men are limited to four at one time, whereas previously there had been no limit, and a wealthy and generous man was expected to cater for as many women as he could afford (in the absence of a welfare state). ...  No Muslim was ever to deliberately cause hurt or harm to another Muslim, so a man might not take extra womenfolk into his home if it would cause upset and distress (it was recommended when there were lots of widows after warfare, if the women were willing to be generous to bereft 'sisters'). Also, if a man could not provide equal treatment of his wives - equal food, clothing, money, living quarters, time spent with - he was refused permission for polygamy. Equal sexual activity was not ruled on, however. Some wives had no sexual relationship with their husbands at all after a while, or if they came into the household as widows of relatives." / ©BBC "BBC - Religions - Islam: Sharia."


Polygamy in Islamic Law /  Jamal A. Badawi © 1988-2012 irfi.org

Why does the Qur'an allow Muslim men to have four wives? @islamcan.com

Polygamy in Islam: The women victims of multiple marriage BBC News, 31 May 2012.

The Men With Many Wives - [YouTube. Sep 27, 2014 - Upload] The Men With Many Wives. Series (BBC HD)

AyoPoligami: Dating app encouraging polygamy A Tinder-style dating app for polygamists has sparked controversy in Indonesia

Mixed Marriage

Arranged Marriage * Forced Marriage

"Forced and arranged marriages

In Sharia Law any marriage that is forced or false in any way is null and void. It is not a proper marriage. This is a problem that seems to plague Muslim women from India/Pakistan/Bangladesh and nowhere else in the Islamic world - and it also applies to Hindus and some Sikhs from those areas too.

Forced marriage is totally forbidden in Islam. False marriage is too - for example, some of our teenage girls are sent back to Pakistan for a holiday when they are about 15, and sign things they do not understand, and then find out later that they have been 'married' even if it has not been consummated. UK lawyers are getting far better at studying Sharia these days, in order to protect these girls from this particular culture.

Forced marriage is not at all the same thing as arranged marriage. Muslims from many countries have a system of arranged marriages, in which the spouses may not have seen each other before marriage, but it always has to be with their free consent. The Prophet himself advised prospective spouses to at least 'look' at each other, until they could see what it was that made them wish to marry that person as opposed to any other. Women forced into marriage, or seeking divorce for general reasons, have the same sort of grounds in Sharia as in the west - cruelty, mental cruelty, adultery, abandonment, etc. They may even request a divorce for no specific reason whatever, so long as they agree to pay back the mahr (marriage payment) made to them by their husband if the husband does not wish to let them go but are obliged to." BBC © 2014.


Force Marriage Staffordshire County Council, United Kingdom

Arranged Marriage: Trapped Between Two Cultures. National Public Radio. Retrieved on 2012-04-02.

Hanan Hamamy (July 2012), Consanguineous marriages, Journal Community Genet. 3(3), pages 185–192.

The "Flight from Marriage" in South-East and East Asia Gavin Jones, Singapore (2011).

Razack, Sherene H. (October 2004). "Imperilled muslim women, dangerous muslim men and civilised Europeans: legal and social responses to forced marriages". Feminist Legal Studies (Springer) 12 (2): 129–174.

Fighting arranged marriage abuse Sue Lloyd-Roberts, BBC News (July 12, 1999)

Consanguineous marriage: Keeping it in the family - The Economist