ISLAMIC LAW IN THE NEWS
- The United Nations has planned a meeting on the situation in Afghanistan, including the Taliban‘s interpretation and application of Islamic law, at a meeting in Doha where the Taliban forces will not be represented.
- “The UN Security Council (UNSC) has unanimously condemned a ban by the Taliban on Afghan women working for the United Nations in Afghanistan, calling on Taliban leaders to “swiftly reverse” a crackdown on the rights of women and girls.” 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.”
- An Australian tourist in Indonesia‘s Aceh province has been charged on several counts of alcohol consumption and public indecency and could face a punishment involving 40 lashes. “The family […] has been asked to pay $61,000 in compensation to a fisherman who was seriously wounded.” For more content and context on harsh interpretations and applications of Islamic criminal law, consult our Editor-in-Chief, Professor Intisar Rabb’s “Resource Roundup: Islamic Criminal Law.” For more news blurbs relating to harsh applications of Islamic criminal law, consult our “Islamic Criminal Law in the News Roundup.”
- “Subang PAS [Malaysia] chief Zaharudin Muhammad […] cited Islamic law to call on the authorities to pardon former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who is currently serving his 12-year jail sentence for stealing RM42 million in funds belonging to a former 1MDB subsidiary.”
- “According to the World Bank, Indonesia has [been reported to have] the most Islamic fintech companies in the world – perhaps fitting, since it’s also the most populous Muslim-majority country in the world with about 231 million Muslims.”
- “Gov. Phil Murphy [of New Jersey] signed a proclamation Saturday designating January as Muslim Heritage Month in a measure that advocates say will promote appreciation and awareness about Muslim traditions and contributions,” potentially including the laws and customs of the Muslim world.
- “The authorities in Iran have closed hundreds of small businesses, including cafes and restaurants, in recent months for allegedly failing to enforce the country’s hijab law on their customers.”
CASES AND FATWĀS
- “Woman’s rights group SIS Forum (Malaysia) has gone to the Federal Court in a final bid to quash a fatwa issued by the Selangor religious authorities labelling the group as deviants.”
UPCOMING EVENTS & OPPORTUNITIES
PIL & Harvard Calendar:
- Disaster Relief: Harvard Law School’s Turkey-Syria Earthquake Relief Efforts.
- Student work opportunity: Research assistant, Widener Library, Harvard University.
- Prize: Alwaleed Bin Talal Graduate Thesis Prize, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program, Harvard University, May 19, 2023.
- Position opening: Managing Editor, Program in Islamic Law at Harvard Law School, May 19, 2023.
- Call for Entries for ILJ Student Note Competition, May 21, 2023.
Global Calendar:
- Call to Sponsor a Member: for applicants affected by the earthquakes, MESA 2023.
- Internship opportunity: The Executive Office of the President, White House, various deadlines.
- Roundtable Discussion: The future of teaching in the Islamicate Digital Humanities, AKU-ISMC, London, May 15-16, 2023.
- Summer Program: Comparative Law, AALS, May 15-June 16, 2023.
- 2023 Law and Humanities Interdisciplinary Workshop: 22nd meeting of the Law and Humanities Interdisciplinary Workshop, Georgetown Law Center, Washington, DC, May 24-25, 2023.
- Call for Papers: Munich Summer Institute 2023 & Ph.D. Workshop, May 24-26, 2023.
- The Graduate Student & Early Career Workshop: Law and Society Association, May 31, 2023.
- Call for Articles: Bogazici Law Review (Turkey), May 31, 2023.
- Call for Applications: ASLH Student Research Colloquium, 2023, June 1, 2023.
- MESA Mentoring Award, June 1, 2023.
- MESA Jere L. Bacharach Service Award, June 1, 2023.
- Annual meeting: Law & Society Association’s Annual Meeting, San Juan, Puerto Rico, June 1-4, 2023.
- Call for Panel and Paper Proposals 2023: The American Society of Comparative Law, June 15, 2023.
- Summer School: Philology and Manuscripts from the Muslim World, Leiden University, June 16, 2023.
- MESA Malcolm H. Kerr Dissertation Awards, July 1, 2023.
- Summer Course: Thinking with Islamicate Manuscripts: Critical Approaches to Historical Methodology, History of Collections, and Digital Tools In Islamic Studies, July 3-7, 2023, Central European University (application deadline: February 14, 2023).
- Conference: Interdisciplinary Conference on Islamic Law in the Crucible of the Modern State: Problems and Perspectives, University of Muenster, Germany, July 10-12, 2023.
- Wallace Johnson First Book Program, July 14, 2023.
- 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.
- Position opening: Associate Director, Center for Religious and Spiritual Life and Muslim Chaplain, Macalester College.
- MESA Undergraduate Education Award, August 1, 2023.
- MESA Graduate Student Paper Prize, August 15, 2023.
- Workshop: TraSIS (Trajectories of Slavery in Islamicate Societies) and the BCDSS (Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies) Murtensee, August 30, 2023 – September 1, 2023.
- Call for Papers: Special Issue of Religions: “A Critique of the Modern Discourse of Maqāṣid,” September 15, 2023.
- Fall 2023 Works-in-Progress Workshop: Comparative Constitutional Law in the Global South, Columbia Law School, October 20-21, 2023.
- Position opening: Adjunct Lecturer in Modern Middle East, Babson College.
- 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.
- MEM Fellowship for Graduate Students of Color.
- Scholarship: Islamic Scholarship Fund CAMBA Law Scholarship 2023.