Justice And Beauty In Muslim Marriage

The model of marriage constructed in classical Islamic jurisprudence rests on patriarchal ethics that privilege men. This worldview persists in gender norms and family laws in many Muslim contexts, despite reforms introduced over the past few decades. In this volume, a diverse group of scholars explore how egalitarian marital relations can be supported from within Islamic tradition. Brought together by the Musawah movement for equality and justice in the Muslim family, they examine ethics and laws related to marriage and gender relations from the perspective of the Qur’an, Sunna, Muslim legal tradition, historical practices and contemporary law reform processes. Collectively they conceptualize how Muslim marriages can be grounded in equality, mutual well-being and the core Qur’anic principles of ‘adl (justice) and ihsan (goodness and beauty).

This book describes and analyses the notion of Mahr, the Muslim custom whereby the groom has to give a gift to the bride in consideration of the marriage. It explores how Western courts, specifically in Canada, the United States, France, and Germany, have approached and interpreted Mahr. Although the outcomes of the cases provide an illustrative framework for the book, the focus is broader than simply the adjudicative endeavours. The work explores the concept of liberalism, which purportedly champions individuals and individual choice concurrently with freedom and equality. Tensions between and among these concepts, however, inevitably arise. The acknowledgment and exploration of these intertwined tensions forms an important underpinning for the book. Through the analysis of case law from these four countries, this study suggests that transplanting Mahr from Islamic law into a Western courtroom cannot be undone: it immediately becomes rooted in the countries' legal, historical, political, and social backgrounds and flourishes (or fails) in diverse and unexpected ways. Rather than being the concept described by classical Islamic jurists, Mahr is interpreted according to wildly varied legal constructs and concepts such as multiculturalism, fairness, public policy, and gender equality. Moreover, Islamic law travels with a multiplicity of voices, and it is this complex hybridity (a fragmented and disjointed Mahr) which will be mediated through Western law. Returning to the overarching concept of liberalism, the book proposes that distributive consequences rather than recognition occupy central place in the evaluation of the legal options available to Muslim women upon divorce.

A solemn attempt to rediscover the Qurnic basis of gender equality, determining the status of women in Islam, to recapture the spirit of quranic revelation further to reconstruct Islamic theology from an egalitarian perspectives. A comprehensive and exhaustive study.

Feminism, Diversity and HRD aims to enhance critical understandings of feminism, diversity and HRD theorization and practice in the global political economy. This involves addressing race, class and intersectional approaches to evaluating inequalities in society/organizations. The book will bring together cutting-edge analysis to offer a critical interdisciplinary overview of the feminism, diversity and HRD debates that are only just emerging. Crucially, it will offer new insights on the governance and policy-making dimensions of national HRD, and the gender agendas advocated by global institutions which are influenced by social justice themes. In this respect, the contributions in this volume offer more than just a tried and tested analysis of the political, knowledge and skill gap problems that face organizations and nation states. Rather, they are agenda-setting and forward-looking since they critically consider what the HRD solutions currently on offer are, and how they can be further improved. Thus, the contributions will cover theoretical and policy perspectives not previously covered in a critical text of this kind.