Islamic Law in the News Roundup

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ISLAMIC LAW IN THE NEWS

  • Following the ruling by the Karnataka (India) High Court that hijāb is not an “essential” part of Islam, advocates have started preparing to take the case to the Supreme Court of India.
  • Islamic scholars have taken issue with the Karnataka High Court‘s recent ruling on hijāb not being an “essential” part of Islam, one scholar commenting that “the obligation for both men and women to dress modestly, and for women to cover their hair in particular, was not just a natural application of these Qur’anic verses, but an obvious conclusion from prophetic precedent.”
  • The Karnataka High Court‘s ruling has stirred debate among Indian scholars and intellectuals, one describing the ruling as a “fatwa from a secular court.”  Others have argued that it was acceptable for the Karnataka Court to engage with the question of whether hijāb is an essential element of Islam, given that the question was posed, and answered affirmatively, by the petitioners.
  • A federal judged recently ruled that Troy‘s (Michigan) refusal to grant variances from zoning ordinances to Muslims intending to build of mosque, while granting such variances to members of other religions on a regular basis, was unlawful and discriminatory.
  • The Supreme Court of Philippines ruled that “[a] party to a civil marriage who converts to Islam and contracts another marriage, despite the first marriage’s subsistence, is guilty of bigamy.”
  • In a letter addressed to government offices, the Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, urged that “[t]he offices for men and women should be separate.”
  • The Taliban have indicated their willingness to overhaul the country’s banking system and replace the conventional banking system with a system based on Islamic banking.
  • The Taliban have halted, once again, education for girls, citing pending regulations to conform women’s education to Islamic law; most girls “were turned away at the door; others sent home just hours after their school day started.”  Meanwhile, Turkey has urged Afghanistan to quickly resume education for girls.
  • Musicians in Afghanistan have come under intense pressure, many leaving their jobs due to the Taliban’s interpretation of Islamic law as forbidding music.
  • The Taliban officially cancelled Nowruz celebrations, but stated that informal celebrations would be allowed. For more content and context on the recent developments in Afghanistan, consult our Editor-in-Chief, Professor Intisar Rabb‘s “Resource Roundup: Afghanistan, the Taliban, and Islamic Law.“

ON COVID-19 AND ISLAMIC LAW

  • “Sri Lanka […] ended a heavily criticised policy that required Muslim Covid-19 victims to be buried at a remote government-designated site in the absence of their families or final religious rites.”

UPCOMING EVENTS & OPPORTUNITIES

PIL & Harvard Calendar:

Global Calendar:

  • Research Associate: The Evolution of Islamic Societies (c.600-1600 CE): Algorithmic Analysis into Social History. Deadline: March 31, 2022.
  • Position opening: Assistant Director for Research, The Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University. Deadline: April 1, 2022.
  • Webinar: AMECYS Friday Digital Author Series: Mr. Shivan Fazil and Dr. Bahar Baser, April 8, 2022.
  • Lecture on Comparative Law: “Metacanons: Comparative Textualism at SCOTUS and in Islamic Law” by Intisar Rabb, UC Berkeley Law, April 13, 2022.
  • Persian Language Summer School by Aspirantum, Yerevan (Armenia), July 3, 2022 – August 27, 2022. Deadline: April 21, 2022.
  • Call for Applications: 2022 Temple Bar Scholarship. Deadline: April 30, 2022.
  • Postdoctoral position opening: Christian-Muslim communication, University of Konstanz. Deadline: April 2022.
  • Call for Applications: The MESA Global Academy 2022-2023. Deadline: May 1, 2022.
  • Conference: Clinical Legal Education, May 9-13, 2022.
  • Webinar: AMECYS Friday Digital Author Series: Dr. Rania Kassab Sweis, Associate Professor of Anthropology, May 13, 2022.
  • Conference on Kurdish Family Law, Harnack House in Berlin, June 2-4, 2022.
  • Workshop: Intertextuality in Islamic and Jewish Law, June 21-23, 2022, University of Muenster.
  • Conference: The Digital Orientalist’s Virtual Conference 2022, June 25, 2022.
  • Society of Legal Scholars, 113th Annual Conference, King’s College London, September 6-9, 2022.
  • Conference: American Society for Legal History 2022, November 10-12, 2022.
  • Position opening: Assistant Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History, University of Tennessee, Fall 2022. Deadline: until an appointment is made.
  • Position opening: Columbia University, The Department of Art History and Archaeology Barbara Stoler Miller Assistant Professor, Indian and South Asian Art History. Deadline: until an appointment is made.
  • Call for Applications: Interdisciplinary Scholars of Places, Movement and Cultural Practices Professor, New York University Abu Dhabi. Deadline: until the position is filled.
  • Research Project: Historian/Researcher – Tudor Period/Elizabethan Era, and the Ottoman Empire during the Suleiman the Magnificent Period. Deadline: until the position is filled.
  • Call for Submissions: The UCLA School of Law’s Journal of Islamic and Near Eastern Law (JINEL).
  • Call for Manuscripts: Advances in the Study of Islam, Edinburgh University Press.
  • Request for Open Submissions: AALS 2023 Annual Meeting, January 4-7, 2023. Submission deadlines vary.

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