Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T04:25:49.394Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Islamic Law, Women's Rights, and Popular Legal Consciousness in Malaysia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2018

Tamir Moustafa
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Drawing on original survey research, this study examines how lay Muslims in Malaysia understand foundational concepts in Islamic law. The survey finds a substantial disjuncture between popular legal consciousness and core epistemological commitments in Islamic legal theory. In its classic form, Islamic legal theory was marked by its commitment to pluralism and the centrality of human agency in Islamic jurisprudence. Yet in contemporary Malaysia, lay Muslims tend to understand Islamic law as being purely divine, with a single “correct” answer to any given question. The practical implications of these findings are demonstrated through examples of efforts by women's rights activists to reform family law provisions in Malaysia. The examples illustrate how popular misconceptions of Islamic law hinder the efforts of those working to reform family law codes while strengthening the hand of conservative actors wishing to maintain the status quo.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Social Inquiry , Volume 38 , Issue 1 , Winter 2013 , pp. 168 - 188
Copyright
Copyright © American Bar Foundation, 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References

Abou El Fadl, Khaled. 2001. Speaking in God's Name: Islamic Law, Authority and Women. Oxford, UK: Oneworld Publications.Google Scholar
Abu Zahrah, Muhammad. 1957. Usul Al‐Fiqh. Cairo, Egypt: Dar al‐Fikr al‐‘Arabi.Google Scholar
Akram, Mohammad Nadwi. 2007. Al‐Muhaddithat: The Women Scholars in Islam. Oxford: Interface Publications.Google Scholar
‘Alim, Yusuf Hamid. 1991. Al‐Maqasid Al‐‘ammah Lil‐Shari‘ah Al‐Islamiyah. Herndon, VA: International Institute of Islamic Thought.Google Scholar
Anwar, Zainah. 2008a. Advocacy for Reform in Islamic Family Law: The Experience of Sisters in Islam. In The Islamic Marriage Contract: Case Studies in Islamic Family Law, ed. Quraishi, Asifa and Vogel, Frank, 275–84. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Anwar, Zainah. 2008b. Wanted: Equality and Justice in the Muslim Family. Selangor, Malaysia: Musawah.Google Scholar
Anwar, Zainah, and Rumminger, Jana S. 2007. Justice and Equality in Muslim Family Laws: Challenges, Possibilities, and Strategies for Reform. Washington and Lee Law Review 64:1529–49.Google Scholar
Badlishah, Nik Noriani Nik. 2000. Marriage and Divorce: Law Reform within Islamic Framework. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: International Law Book Services.Google Scholar
Badlishah, Nik Noriani Nik. 2003. Islamic Family Law and Justice for Muslim Women. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Sisters in Islam.Google Scholar
Badlishah, Nik Noriani Nik. 2008. Legislative Provisions and Judicial Mechanisms for the Enforcement and Termination of the Islamic Marriage Contract in Malaysia. In The Islamic Marriage Contract: Case Studies in Islamic Family Law, ed. Quraishi, Asifa and Vogel, Frank, 183–98. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Barr, Michael D., and Govindasamy, Anantha. 2010. The Islamisation of Malaysia: Religious Nationalism in the Service of Ethnonationalism. Australian Journal of International Affairs 64 (3): 293–311.Google Scholar
Camroux, David. 1996. State Response to Islamic Resurgence in Malaysia: Accommodation, Co‐option, and Confrontation. Asian Survey 36 (9): 852–68.Google Scholar
Dieste, Josep Lluis Mateo. 2009. “Demonstrating Islam”: The Conflict of Text and the Mudawwana Reform in Morocco. Muslim World 99:134–54.Google Scholar
Esposito, John L., and Mogahed, Dalia. 2008. Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think. New York: Gallup Press.Google Scholar
Griffel, Frank. 2007. Introduction. In Shari‘a: Islamic Law in the Contemporary Context, ed. Amanat, Abbas and Griffel, Frank, 1–19. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Hallaq, Wael B. 2001. Authority, Continuity, and Change in Islamic Law. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hallaq, Wael B. 2005. The Origins and Evolution of Islamic Law. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hallaq, Wael B. 2009a. Shari‘a: Theory, Practice, Transformations. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hallaq, Wael B. 2009b. An Introduction to Islamic Law. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hooker, M. B. 1984. Islamic Law in South‐East Asia. Singapore: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Horowitz, Donald. 1994. The Qur'an and the Common Law: Islamic Law Reform and the Theory of Legal Change. American Journal of Comparative Law 42:233–93.Google Scholar
Hussin, Iza. 2007. The Pursuit of Perak Regalia: Islam, Law, and the Politics of Authority in the Colonial State. Law & Social Inquiry 32:759–84.Google Scholar
Jackson, Sherman A. 1996. Islamic Law and the State: The Constitutional Jurisprudence of Shihab al‐Din al‐Qarafi. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill Academic Publishers.Google Scholar
Johansen, Baber. 1999. Contingency in a Sacred Law: Legal and Ethical Norms in the Muslim Fiqh. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill Academic Publishers.Google Scholar
Kamali, Mohammad Hashim. 2008. Shari‘ah Law: An Introduction. Oxford, UK: Oneworld Publications.Google Scholar
Liow, Joseph. 2009. Piety and Politics: Islamism in Contemporary Malaysia. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Mahmasani, Subhi Rajab. 1961. Falsafat Al‐Tashri Fi Al‐Islam: The Philosophy of Jurisprudence in Islam. Leiden, Netherlands: E. J. Brill.Google Scholar
Masud, Muhammad Khalid, Messick, Brinkley, and Powers, David. 1996. Islamic Legal Interpretation: Muftis and Their Fatwas. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Mayer, Ann. 2006. Islam and Human Rights: Tradition and Politics, 4th ed. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Merry, Sally Engle. 1990. Getting Justice and Getting Even: Legal Consciousness among Working‐Class Americans. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Mir‐Hosseini, Ziba. 2008. A Woman's Right to Terminate the Marriage Contract: The Case of Iran. In The Islamic Marriage Contract, ed. Quraishi, Asifa and Vogel, Frank, 215–30. Cambridge, MA: Islamic Legal Studies Program, Harvard Law School.Google Scholar
Moghadam, Valentine. 2002. Islamic Feminism and its Discontents: Toward a Resolution of the Debate. Signs 27:1135–73.Google Scholar
Mohamad, Maznah. 2010. The Ascendance of Bureaucratic Islam and the Secularization of the Sharia in Malaysia. Pacific Affairs 83:505–24.Google Scholar
Mohamed, Abdul Hamid. 2008. Harmonization of Common Law and Shari‘ah Law in Malaysia: A Practical Approach. Lecture at Harvard University Law School, November 6.Google Scholar
Na‘im, Abdullahi An‐. 2002. Islamic Family Law in a Changing World: A Global Resource Book. New York: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Na‘im, Abdullahi An‐. 2008. Islam and the Secular State: Negotiating the Future of Shari‘a. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Nasr, Seyyed Vali Reza. 2001. Islamic Leviathan: Islam and the Making of State Power. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Osanloo, Arzoo. 2009. The Politics of Women's Rights in Iran. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Othman, Norani, ed. 2005. Muslim Women and the Challenge of Islamic Extremism. Selangor, Malaysia: Sisters in Islam.Google Scholar
Peletz, Michael G. 2002. Islamic Modern: Religious Courts and Cultural Politics in Malaysia. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Peters, Rudolph. 2005. Crime and Punishment in Islamic Law: Theory and Practice from the Sixteenth to the Twenty‐First Century. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Quraishi, Asifa. 2006. Interpreting the Qur'an and the Constitution: Similarities in the Use of Text, Tradition, and Reason in Islamic and American Jurisprudence. Cardozo Law Review 28:67–121.Google Scholar
Quraishi, Asifa, and Vogel, Frank, eds. 2008. The Islamic Marriage Contract: Case Studies in Islamic Family Law. Cambridge, MA: Islamic Legal Studies Program, Harvard Law School.Google Scholar
Roff, William R. 1967. The Origins of Malay Nationalism. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Shawkani, Muhammad ibn ‘Ali. 1981. Talab Al‐‘ilm Wa‐Tabaqat Al‐Muta‘allimin: adab Al‐Talab Wa‐Muntaha Al‐Arab. Cairo, Egypt: Dar al‐Arqam.Google Scholar
Singerman, Diane. 2004. Rewriting Divorce in Egypt: Reclaiming Islam, Legal Activism, and Coalition Politics. In Remaking Muslim Politics: Pluralism, Contestation, Democratization, ed. Hefner, Robert, 161–88. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Sonbol, Amira El‐Azhary. 2008. A History of Marriage Contracts in Egypt. In The Islamic Marriage Contract: Case Studies in Islamic Family Law, ed. Quraishi, Asifa and Vogel, Frank, 87–122. Cambridge, MA: Islamic Legal Studies Program, Harvard Law School.Google Scholar
Souaiaia, Ahmed E. 2009. Contesting Justice: Women, Islam, Law, and Society. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Stilt, Kristen. 2011. Islamic Law in Action: Authority, Discretion, and Everyday Experiences in Mamluk Egypt. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Suara Rakyat Malaysia (SUARAM). 2008. Malaysia Human Rights Report 2008: Civil and Political Rights. Petaling Jaya, Malaysia: SUARAM Kommunikasi.Google Scholar
Tucker, Judith E. 2008. Women, Family, and Gender in Islamic Law. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Vogel, Frank E. 2000. Islamic Law and Legal System: Studies of Saudi Arabia. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill Academic Publishers.Google Scholar
Wadud, Amina. 1999. Qur'an and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman's Perspective. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Weiss, Bernard G. 1992. The Search for God's Law: Islamic Jurisprudence in the Writings of Sayf Al‐Din Al‐Amidi. Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press.Google Scholar
Zayd, Mustafa. 1964. Al‐Maslahah Fi Al‐Tashri‘ Al‐Islami Wa‐Najm Al‐Din Al‐Tufi. Cairo, Egypt: Dar al‐Fikr al‐‘Arabi.Google Scholar
Zulficar, Mona. 2008. The Islamic Marriage Contract in Egypt. In The Islamic Marriage Contract: Case Studies in Islamic Family Law, ed. Quraishi, Asifa and Vogel, Frank, 231–74. Cambridge, MA: Islamic Legal Studies Program, Harvard Law School.Google Scholar

Statutes Cited

Administration of Islamic Law Act (Federal Territories Act 505 of 1993).Google Scholar
Islamic Family Law Act (Federal Territories Act 303 of 1984).Google Scholar
Shari‘a Civil Procedure Act (Federal Territories Act 585 of 1997).Google Scholar
Shari‘a Criminal Offences Act (Federal Territories Act 559 of 1997).Google Scholar
Shari‘a Criminal Procedure Act (Federal Territories Act 560 of 1997).Google Scholar