The social impetus for reform

ʿAṣabiyya (from the root word ʿaṣaba) is the term used in Arabic literature to describe the solidarity of the extended agnatic family of traditional Islamic society – a notion of tribal ties and responsibilities which was the bedrock of the traditional Sunnī law of inheritance. In contemporary Islamic society, however, particularly in urban areas, the bonds of ʿaṣabiyya have become progressively weaker and in some places have altogether disappeared.

Today, therefore, the focus of family ties has narrowed to centre upon what sociologists call the “nuclear family”, the more limited group made up of parents and their lineal issue. And inevitably this has meant that within this immediate family circle the female – as wife, mother or daughter – occupies a much more prominent position and plays a much more effective and responsible role than hitherto. Over the past few decades the movement for the reform of the traditional family law has gathered increasing momentum throughout the Muslim world. It is a process of law reform which, because of the extent and the nature of the changes which have been introduced, can have few parallels in universal legal history; and undoubtedly the most significant and striking aspect of it has been the progressive improvement in the legal status of women.