Women's Rights and Islamic Family Law: Perspectives on Reform »

Lynn Welchman is Director of the Centre of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

This volume explores the present-day realities of Islamic family law, with particular emphasis on the rights of women. Three contrasting country cases have been selected: Egypt, the most populous Arab state with a constitutional clause on the place of "principles of the shari`a" as the principal source of legislation; the West Bank and Gaza, family law here being a contested site between different visions of national identity in the process of trying to build a Palestinian state; and the United States, where some in the minority Muslim communities seek to regulate their family relations in accordance with "principles of the shari`a" within the context of a non-Muslim state applying civil law requirements to all family matters. A concluding study ranges further afield in order to explore the challenges and potential of "principles of shari`a" in advocacy on the question of violence against women.