Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T12:37:37.578Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The beginning of the sharpness: loyalty, citizenship and Muslim divorce practice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 October 2013

Máiréad Enright
Máiréad Enright*
Affiliation:
School of Law, University of Kent
*
m.enright@kent.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Muslim divorce practice is a feminist issue, insofar as it often departs from core principles of Anglo-American divorce law. When legal feminists have examined the reception of Muslim divorce practice in common-law courts, they have tended to measure those departures in terms of financial outcome. There is a danger that, in consequence, our theory of Muslim women's legal agency is reduced to pragmatic matters of choice, money and advantage-taking. That theory seems hugely impoverished when read against the political background in Britain, where Muslims‘ legal agency upon divorce is bound up with deeper questions of belonging and allegiance. Feminist work ought to be able to advance a theory of citizens’ commitment to civil law in litigation which can give a complex account even of the unsettling litigation of Muslim divorce disputes in civil courts. This article draws on existing work in feminist multiculturalism to sketch the beginnings of that theory.

Type
Articles
Information
International Journal of Law in Context , Volume 9 , Special Issue 3: Complex transformations – gender, religious subjectivities and the new politics of belonging , September 2013 , pp. 295 - 317
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 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

Abu-Odeh, L. (2004) ‘Egyptian Feminism: Trapped in Identity Debate’, in Haddad, Y. Y. and Stowasser, B. F. (eds.), Islamic Law and the Challenges of Modernity. Lanham, MD: Rowman Altamira.Google Scholar
Adamson, F. B. (2011) ‘Engaging or Contesting the Liberal State? “Muslim” as a Politicised Identity Category in Europe’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 37: 899–915.Google Scholar
Alexander, J. C. (2006) The Civil Sphere. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Al-Hibri, A. Y. (2000) ‘Muslim Women's Rights in the Global Village: Challenges and Opportunities’, Journal of Law and Religion 15: 37–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ali, S. S. (2010) ‘Cyberspace as Emerging Muslim Discursive Space? Online Fatawa On Women and Gender Relations and its Impact on Muslim Family Law Norms’, International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family 24: 338–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
An-Na'im, A. A. (2008) Islam and the Secular State: Negotiating the Future of Shari'a. Boston: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Balchin, C. (2010) Negotiating Bliss | openDemocracy. Available at: <http://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/cassandra-balchin/negotiating-bliss> (last accessed 1 November 2012).+(last+accessed+1+November+2012).>Google Scholar
Balibar, É. (2004) We, the People of Europe? Reflections on Transnational Citizenship. Princeton, NJ/Oxford: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Balibar, É. (2006) Strangers as Enemies: Further Reflections on the Aporias of Transnational Citizenship (MCRI Globalization and Autonomy). Hamilton: McMaster University.Google Scholar
Bano, S. (2008) ‘In Pursuit of Religious and Legal Diversity: A Response to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the “Sharia Debate” in Britain’, Ecclesiastical Law Journal 10: 283–309.Google Scholar
Bano, S. (2010) ‘Shariah Councils and the Resolution of Matrimonial Disputes’, in Thiara, R. K. and Gill, A. K. (eds), Violence Against Women in South Asian Communities: Issues for Policy and Practice. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 182–210.Google Scholar
Bano, S. (2011) ‘Muslim Marriage and Mahr: The Experience of British Muslim Women’, in Mehdi, R. (ed.), Embedding Mahr in the European Legal System. Copenhagen: DJØF Publishing, 113–46.Google Scholar
BBC (2008) ‘Assessing Cameron's Sharia Speech’. Available at: <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7265386.stm> (last accessed 1 November 2012). (last accessed 1 November 2012).' href=https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=BBC+(2008)+‘Assessing+Cameron's+Sharia+Speech’.+Available+at:++(last+accessed+1+November+2012).>Google Scholar
Benhabib, S. (2004) The Rights of Others: Aliens, Residents and Citizens. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Beresford, S. (2011) ‘Seeking Secularism: Resisting Religiosity in Marriage and Divorce. A Comparative Study of England and America’, Web Journal of Current Legal Issues 3.Google Scholar
Berlant, L. G. (1997) The Queen of America Goes to Washington City: Essays on Sex and Citizenship, Durham, NC/London: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Blunkett, D. (2001) Secure Borders, Safe Haven: Integration with Diversity in Modern Britain. London: Home Office.Google Scholar
Bowen, J. (2011) ‘How Could English Courts Recognize Shariah?’, University of St Thomas Law Journal 7: 411–35.Google Scholar
Braidotti, R. (2010) ‘On Becoming Europeans’, in Passerini, L. (ed.), Women Migrants from East to West: Gender, Mobility and Belonging in Contemporary Europe. New York: Berghahn Books, 23–45.Google Scholar
Brown, K. E. (2008) ‘The Promise and Perils of Women's Participation in UK Mosques: The Impact of Securitisation Agendas on Identity, Gender and Community’, British Journal of Politics & International Relations 10: 472–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, K. E. (2010) ‘Contesting the Securitization of British Muslims’, Interventions 12: 171–82.Google Scholar
Brown, W. (2010) Walled States, Waning Sovereignty. New York: Zone.Google Scholar
Bunting, M. (2008) ‘A Noble, Reckless Rebellion’. Available at: <http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/feb/09/religion.politics> (last accessed 1 November 2012).+(last+accessed+1+November+2012).>Google Scholar
Butler, J. (1997) Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative, New York/London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Butt, R. (2008) ‘Uproar as Archbishop Says Sharia Law Inevitable in UK.’ Available at: <http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/feb/08/uk.religion> (last accessed 1 November 2012).+(last+accessed+1+November+2012).>Google Scholar
Cameron, D. (2011) ‘Speech on Radicalisation and Islamic Extremism, Munich Conference.’ Available at: <http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2011/02/terrorism-islam-ideology> (last accessed 1 November 2012).+(last+accessed+1+November+2012).>Google Scholar
Cantle, T. (2001) Community Cohesion: A Report of the Independent Review Team. London: Home Office.Google Scholar
Cantle, T. (2004) The End of Parallel Lives? The Report of the Community Cohesion Panel. London: Department of Communities and Local Government.Google Scholar
Charlsley, K. and Liversage, A. (2012) ‘Transforming Polygamy: Migration, Transnationalism and Multiple Marriages among Muslim Minorities’, Global Networks 13(1): 60–78.Google Scholar
Clarke, J. (2005) ‘New Labour's Citizens: Activated, Empowered, Responsibilized, Abandoned?’, Critical Social Policy 25: 447–63.Google Scholar
Cover, R. M. (1983) ‘Foreword: Nomos and Narrative’, Harvard Law Review 97: 4–67.Google Scholar
Crick, B., Brighouse, T., Brown, J. T. E., Coussey, M. and Hira, S. (2003) The New and the Old: The Report of the ‘Life in the United Kingdom’ Advisory Group. London: Home Office.Google Scholar
Davis, A. D. (1999) ‘The Private Law of Race and Sex: An Antebellum Perspective’, Stanford Law Review 51: 221–88.Google Scholar
Denham, J. (2001) Building Cohesive Communities: A Report of the Ministerial Group on Public Order and Community Cohesion’. London: Home Office.Google Scholar
De Sousa Santos, B. (1987) Toward a New Legal Common Sense: Law, Globalization and Emancipation, 2nd edn (2002). London: LexisNexis.Google Scholar
De Sousa Santos, B. (2007) ‘Beyond Abyssal Thinking: From Global Lines to Ecologies of Knowledges’, Review, XXX: 45–89.Google Scholar
Deveaux, M. (2006) Gender and Justice in Multicultural Liberal States. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Diduck, A. and Kaganas, F. (2006) Family Law, Gender and the State. Oxford: Hart Publishing.Google Scholar
Douglas, G., Doe, N., Gillat-Ray, S., Sandberg, R. and Khan, A. (2012) ‘The Role of Religious Tribunals in Regulating Marriage and Divorce’, Child and Family Law Quarterly 24(2): 139–57.Google Scholar
Dudziak, M. L. and Volpp, L. (2006) Legal Borderlands: Law and the Construction of American Borders. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Eekelaar, J. (2011) ‘“Not of the Highest Importance”: Family Justice under Threat’, Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law 33: 311–17.Google Scholar
Enright, M. (2009) ‘Choice, Culture and the Politics of Belonging: The Emerging Law of Forced and Arranged Marriage’, Modern Law Review 72: 331–59.Google Scholar
Ertman, M. M. (2007) ‘Mapping the New Frontiers of Private Ordering: Afterword’, Arizona Law Review 49: 695–715.Google Scholar
Esposito, J. L. and Delong-Bas, N. J. (2001) Women in Muslim Family Law. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.Google Scholar
Fishbayn, L. (1999) ‘Litigating the Right to Culture: Family Law in the New South Africa’, International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family 13: 147–73.Google Scholar
Fournier, P. (2012) ‘Calculating Claims: Jewish and Muslim Women Navigating Religion, Economics and Law in Canada’, International Journal of Law in Context 8(1): 47–72.Google Scholar
Fraser, N. (2008) Scales of Justice: Reimagining Political Space in a Globalizing World. Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
Genn, H. (2012) ‘What is Civil Justice For? Reform, ADR and Access to Justice’, Yale Journal of Law & Humanism 34: 397–417.Google Scholar
Goldsmith, B. P. H. (2008) Citizenship: Our Common Bond. London: Ministry of Justice.Google Scholar
Goodman, P. (2011) ‘The Government may Recognise Polygamous Sharia Marriages’. Available at: <http://conservativehome.blogs.com/thetorydiary/2011/07/draft-four-government-mulling-compulsory-state-registration-of-religious-marriages.html> (last accessed 1 November 2012).+(last+accessed+1+November+2012).>Google Scholar
Great britain ministry of justice (2007) The Governance of Britain. Cm 7170. London: TSO.Google Scholar
Gutkowski, S. (2011) ‘Secularism and the Politics of Risk’, International Relations 25: 346–62.Google Scholar
Halley, J. and Rittich, K. (2010) ‘Critical Directions in Comparative Family Law: Genealogies and Contemporary Studies of Family Law Exceptionalism’, American Journal of Comparative Law 58: 753–75.Google Scholar
Honig, B. (2008) ‘An Agonist's Reply’, Rechtsfilosofie en Rechtstheorie 38: 7–7.Google Scholar
Hunter, R. (2011) ‘Doing Violence to Family Law’, Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law 33(4): 343–59.Google Scholar
Institute of Family Law Arbitrators (IFLA) (2012) ‘Family Law Arbitration Scheme: Arbitration Rules’. Available at: <http://ifla.org.uk/> (last accessed 1 November 2012).+(last+accessed+1+November+2012).>Google Scholar
Jabri, V. (2008) ‘Security, Multiculturalism and the Cosmopolis’, in Stephens, A. C. and Vaughan-Williams, N. (eds), Terrorism and the Politics of Response: London in a Time of Terror. London: Taylor & Francis, 44–59.Google Scholar
Kennett, W. (2012) ‘Women Living Under Shariah Law – Part Two – Choice and Transparency’, Women in Society 3: 2–27.Google Scholar
Knop, K. (2008) ‘Citizenship, Public & Private’, Law and Contemporary Problems 71: 309–41.Google Scholar
Knop, K., Riles, A. and Michaels, R. (2012) ‘From Multiculturalism to Technique: Feminism, Culture and the Conflict of Laws Style’, Stanford Law Review 64: 589–655.Google Scholar
Lindahl, H. (2006) ‘Give and Take’, Philosophy & Social Criticism 32: 881–901.Google Scholar
Lindahl, H. (2008) ‘Law's “Uncanniness”: A Phenomenology of Legal Decisions’, Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Rechtsfilosofie en Rechtstheorie 38: 137–50.Google Scholar
Lindahl, H. (2009) ‘The Opening: Alegality and Political Agonism’, in Schaap, A. (ed.), Law and Agonistic Politics. London: Routledge, 57–71.Google Scholar
Lowndes, V. and Thorp, L. (2011) ‘Interpreting “Community Cohesion”: Modes, Means and Mixes’, Policy & Politics 39: 513–32.Google Scholar
Macfarlane, J. (2012) Islamic Divorce in North America: A Shari'a Path in a Secular Society. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Malik, M. (2012) Minority Legal Orders in the UK: Minorities, Pluralism and the Law. London: British Academy Policy Centre.Google Scholar
Mcclain, L. C. (2010) Marriage Pluralism in the United States: On Civil and Religious Jurisdiction and the Demands of Equal Citizenship (Boston University School of Law Working Paper No. 10–14). Boston, MA: Boston University.Google Scholar
Mcghee, D. (2005) Intolerant Britain? Hate, Citizenship and Difference. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.Google Scholar
Mcmillan, J. and Woodruff, C. (1999) ‘Private Order under Dysfunctional Public Order’, Michigan Law Review 98: 2421–58.Google Scholar
Menski, W. (2013) ‘Governance and Governability in South Asian Family Laws and in Diaspora’, Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law 45(1): 42–57.Google Scholar
Mir-Hosseini, Z. (1997) Marriage on Trial: A Study of Islamic Family Law: Iran and Morocco Compared. London: I. B. Tauris.Google Scholar
Mir-Hosseini, Z. (2009) ‘Towards Gender Equality: Muslim Family Laws and the Shari'ah’, in Anwar, Zainah (ed.), Wanted: Equality and Justice in the Muslim Family. Kuala Lumpur: Sisters in Islam and Musawah, 23–63.Google Scholar
Mookherjee, M. (2009) Women's Rights as Multicultural Claims: Reconfiguring Gender and Diversity in Political Philosophy. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Moore, K., Mason, P. and Lewis, J. (2008) Images of Islam in the UK: The Representation of British Muslims in the National Print News Media 2000–2008. Cardiff: Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies.Google Scholar
Nasir, J. J. (2009) The Status of Women under Islamic Law and Modern Islamic Legislation (Brill's Arab and Islamic Law Series). Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
O'malley, P. (2000) ‘Uncertain Subjects: Risks, Liberalism and Contract’, Economy and Society 29: 460–84.Google Scholar
Ouseley, H. (2002) Community Pride, not Prejudice – The Ouseley Report on Bradford. Bradford: Bradford Vision.Google Scholar
Patel, P. and Siddiqui, H. (2010) ‘Shrinking Secular Spaces’, in Thiara, R. K. and Gill, A. K. (eds), Violence Against Women in South Asian Communities: Issues for Policy and Practice. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 102–28.Google Scholar
Pearl, D. and Menski, W. (1998) Muslim Family Law. London: Sweet & Maxwell.Google Scholar
Pettit, P. (1997) Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and Government. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Phillips, A. (2007) Multiculturalism Without Culture. Princeton, NJ/Oxford: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Probert, R. (2009) ‘Cohabitation: Current Legal Solutions’, Current Legal Problems 62: 316–45.Google Scholar
Rancière, Jacques. (1998) Disagreement: Politics and Philosophy. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Sandberg, R., Douglas, G., Doe, N., Gillat-Ray, S. and Khan, A. (2013) ‘Britain's Religious Tribunals: “Joint Governance in Practice”’, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 33(2): 1–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sezgin, Y. (2010) ‘The Role of Alternative Legalities in Bringing about Socio-Legal Change in Religious Systems’, Journal of Comparative Law 5(2): 245–59.Google Scholar
Shachar, A. (2001) Multicultural Jurisdictions: Cultural Differences and Women's Rights. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Shachar, A. (2009) ‘Entangled: State, Religion, and the Family’. Available at: <http://harvardilj.org/online/163> (last accessed 1 November 2012).+(last+accessed+1+November+2012).>Google Scholar
Shah, P. (2005) Legal Pluralism in Conflict: Coping with Cultural Diversity in Law. London: GlassHouse.Google Scholar
Siddiqui, H and Patel, M. (2010) ‘Safe and Sane: A Model of Intervention on Domestic Violence and Mental Health, Suicide and Self-Harm Amongst Black and Ethnic Minority Women’. Available at: <http://www.southallblacksisters.org.uk/sbs/sas-report-copyright-sbs.pdf> (last accessed 1 November 2012).+(last+accessed+1+November+2012).>Google Scholar
Straw, J. (2008) ‘Speech at Islamic Finance and Trade Conference’. Available at: <http://web.archive.org/web/20090108093856/http://www.justice.gov.uk/news/sp301008a.htm> (last accessed 1 November 2012).+(last+accessed+1+November+2012).>Google Scholar
Suleiman, Y. (2012) ‘Contextualising Islam in Britain II’. Available at: <http://www.cis.cam.ac.uk/assets/media/cib2-complete-report.pdf> (last accessed 1 November 2012).+(last+accessed+1+November+2012).>Google Scholar
Williams, R. (2008) ‘Civil and Religious Law in England: A Religious Perspective’, Ecclesiastical Law Journal 10: 262–82.Google Scholar
Woodward, W. and Butt, R. (2008) ‘Laying Down the Law: Ministers Cool on Archbishop's Sharia Suggestion’. Available at: <http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/feb/08/politics.religion> (last accessed 1 November 2012). (last accessed 1 November 2012).' href=https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Woodward,+W.+and+Butt,+R.+(2008)+‘Laying+Down+the+Law:+Ministers+Cool+on+Archbishop's+Sharia+Suggestion’.+Available+at:++(last+accessed+1+November+2012).>Google Scholar
Yassari, N. (2011) ‘The Islamic Mahr in German Courts: Characterisation in Private International Law and Accommodation in German National Family Law’, in Mehdi, R. and Nielsen, J. (eds), Embedding Mahr in the European Legal System. Copenhagen: DJØF Publishing, 193–217.Google Scholar
Yuval-Davis, N. (2011) ‘Power, Intersectionality and the Politics of Belonging’. Available at: <http://vbn.aau.dk/files/58024503/FREIA_wp_75.pdf (last accessed 1 November 2012).Google Scholar