This chapter explores the 2012 legal opinion (fatwā) issued by the Egyptian Dār al-Iftāʾ—the body officially tasked with providing Islamic legal advice by the Egyptian state—on women’s capacity to serve as heads of state. In the course of discussing the issue, the authors apologetically asserts that there is not and has never been a ‘woman question’ in Islam, i.e. that there has never been any restriction on women’s agency ‘in Islam’ per se and that women are not in the least bit excluded from acting in the public sphere. The authors present examples of Muslim women serving as heads of state, judges and in other executive and public order roles, as well as minority legal opinions, in order to demonstrate their contention.

Focusing on the island of Borneo, this chapter explains why Brunei – but not the other administrative units on Borneo – achieved separate independence. Nineteenth-century European expansion into Southeast Asia divided the island of Borneo into four administrative units: Brunei, Sarawak, North Borneo, and Dutch Borneo. The first three, located in the northern part of the island, were under British colonial rule, while the southern half was under Dutch colonial rule. They were highly similar to each other prior to colonization, but their decolonization outcomes diverged; Dutch Borneo became part of Indonesia, and Sarawak and North Borneo became part of Malaysia, while Brunei rejected to be merged into Malaysia in 1963 and eventually became independent separately in 1984. This chapter conducts historical within-case and comparative case studies to show that oil and the protectorate system enabled Brunei’s separate independence, while the lack of these two factors resulted in the incorporation of the other three colonial units into larger entities.

Since 1906, when the British colonial Residency commenced, Brunei Darussalam has had a dual legal system in which common law courts operated alongside Islamic courts. In keeping with the Sultan’s post-independence ideological policy for Islamisation of law and legal institutions, the jurisdiction and importance of the Islamic courts has increased. However, the higher echelons of common law courts, including the Court of Appeal, remain constituted by non-citizen, foreign judges from the British Commonwealth. This chapter evaluates the current role and purpose of foreign judges in the Sultanate. Whilst these judges cannot engage in constitutional interpretation or in judicial review, their distinguished careers outside Brunei Darussalam enable their presence to bring independence, impartiality, and experience to Brunei Darussalam’s civil courts. The chapter reflects on the impact on the dual system court from creating a zikir (fully-Syariah compliant) nation, and consequences of duplication and jurisdictional uncertainty that have arisen.

In the years following World War I, the British Government of India began taking greater interest in internal security challenges in the Gulf. Aside from small detachments of sepoys in Manama and Muscat, Britain did not have forces stationed in the area to prevent plots against rulers or defend against unexpected tribal attacks from the desert. There were very few incentives for Britain to fill this power gap by garrisoning troops, but plenty of disincentives: hostile inhabitants, an unforgiving climate in summer and malaria in winter. In keeping with its hands-off approach, Britain wanted the rulers to secure their own positions by developing militaries. In Muscat, the British actively encouraged the sultan to develop a force that could dominate the land approaches to Muscat. Britain supported the establishment of the Bahrain Levy Corps in 1924 to protect the regent from relatives. In Kuwait, the threat was external: raids by the Ikhwan (religiously inspired tribal fighters) into Kuwaiti territory. In all cases, the British Government of India wanted the local rulers to take greater responsibility for securing their own territories rather than continually seeking British military assistance in a crisis.