ISLAMIC LAW IN THE NEWS
- “The Supreme Court [of India] [is set to] examine a 2021 ruling of the Kerala High Court affirming a Muslim woman’s right to pronounce extrajudicial divorce by way of ‘khula.'”
- “The development of Islamic banking in the Philippines aims to benefit all Filipinos,” the central bank of the Philippines recently stated.
- The Federal Court in Malaysia has announced that it would take up the case of a women originally of the Hindu faith, who alleges she was unilaterally converted when still a child by her mother.
- Responding to a question regarding same-sex marriages, Malaysia‘s Minister of Religious Affairs Datuk Mohd Na’im Mokhtar recently stated: “As long as the marriage is valid under Islamic law, which is between a man and a woman, then the marriage can be registered.”
- “The Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) has urged the government to increase more positions and recruitment more people in order to ease the management under the halal certification department.”
- “Providing basic rights for Afghans in the framework of the constitution will lead to political stability in the country, in the meantime, providing women and girls with the right to education in accordance with Islamic law will strengthen the potential of internal legitimacy,” a participant commented at the Academy of Science of Afghanistan (ASA) seminar recently held in Kabul, Afghanistan. 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.”
CASES AND FATWĀS
- Scholars of Islamic law have weighed in on the question of whether watching anime is permissible under Islamic law.
- The Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) recently shared a post on its Facebook account reminding a 2015 fatwā by the Special Meeting of the Fatwa Committee of the National Council for Islamic Religious Affairs Malaysia declaring the use of electronic cigarettes impermissible under Islamic law.
UPCOMING EVENTS AND OPPORTUNITIES
PIL & Harvard Calendar:
- Student work opportunity: Research assistant, Widener Library, Harvard University.
- Book talk: Nathan Thrall’s “A Day in the Life of Abed Salama” – A Book talk with Kenneth Roth, CMES, Harvard University, October 23, 2023.
- Talk: “Chasing Floods: the Ottoman Introduction of Rice in the Balkan Peninsula” by Aleksandar Shopov, CMES, Harvard University, November 15, 2023.
- Seminar: “Revisiting History: Nurullah Shushtari on Shī’ī Historiography, Taqiyya & The Pre-Savafid Era” by Shahrad Shahvand, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program, Harvard University, November 16, 2023.
- Talk: “The ‘Khitat’ of al-Maqrizi: Narrating History on the Tempo of ‘Kharab’” by Nasser Rabat, CMES, Harvard University, November 28, 2023.
- Talk: “Locusts of Power” by Samuel Dolbee, CMES, Harvard University, November 29, 2023.
- Seminar: “Ineffability and Adequation: Symmetries between ‘Ayn al-Quḍāt Hamadānī’s Theory of Language, Ontology and Mystical Epistemology” by Nicholas Boylston, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program, Harvard University, November 30, 2023.
Global Calendar:
- Call for Papers: Law and Society Association Annual Meeting Unsettling Territories: Tradition and Revolution in Law and Society, October 24, 2023.
- Research Fellowship: Crown Center for Middle East Studies 2024, Brandeis University, October 27, 2023.
- Fellowship: The American Research Institute in Turkey (ARIT), 2024-25, November 1, 2023.
- Position opening: Assistant Professor in Early Modern / Modern Islam, The Department of Religious Studies at Northwestern University, November 1, 2023.
- Conference: MESA’s 57th Annual Meeting, Montréal, Québec, Canada, November 2-5, 2023.
- Position opening: Assistant Professor in Islamic Southeast Asia, Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies at UC Berkeley, November 10, 2023.
- Position opening: Assistant Professor in South Asian Cultural Studies, The Department of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies at Duke University, November 15, 2023.
- Call for Papers: Annual Comparative Law Work-in-Progress Workshop, November 15, 2023.
- Call for Papers: American Oriental Society’s 234th Meeting, November 15, 2023.
- Webinar: Revisiting the History of Medieval Libya (7th-16th centuries): The emirate of the Banū Tellīs in the 15th c. CE, November 22, 2023.
- Call for Papers: EMPIRE: In Theory and In Middle East History, American University in Cairo, December 1, 2023.
- Call for Papers: Annual Conference of the British Association for Islamic Studies, December 14, 2023.
- Webinar: Revisiting the History of Medieval Libya (7th-16th centuries): Shedding light on some Islamic sites and buildings in Cyrenaica, December 20, 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.
- Panel on Islamic Law and Constitutionalism: AALS 2024 Meeting, January 4, 2024.
- Author-Meets-Reader: Sherman Jackson and “The Islamic Secular,” AALS 2024 Meeting, January 6, 2024.
- Request for Open Submissions: AALS 2023 Annual Meeting, January 4-7, 2023. Submission deadlines vary.
- Webinar: Revisiting the History of Medieval Libya (7th-16th centuries): The jurisprudential corpus and the history of Ibadism in medieval Libya: additions and difficulties, January 24, 2024.
- Position opening: Postdoctoral opportunity in History of Islam/Arabic Studies, Leiden University, February 1, 2024.
- Webinar: Revisiting the History of Medieval Libya (7th-16th centuries): Looking for Libya in Coptic-Arabic historiographical sources, February 21, 2024.
- Webinar: Revisiting the History of Medieval Libya (7th-16th centuries): Partnership for Heritage. Documentation and heritage management for the protection of the Nafousa Mountains, April 17, 2024.
- Webinar: Revisiting the History of Medieval Libya (7th-16th centuries): Between Ṭarābulus and Aṭrābulus. The journey of the toponym and difficulties in determining its form, May 22, 2024.
- Webinar: Revisiting the History of Medieval Libya (7th-16th centuries): Surveying and documentation of the archaeological city of Barca (Al-Marj), June 26, 2024.
- Symposium on Copyright in Islamic Legal Tradition, Istanbul, June 28-29, 2024.
- Search for Editor: International Journal of Middle East Studies, until an appointment is made.
- MEM Fellowship for Graduate Students of Color.
- Scholarship: Islamic Scholarship Fund CAMBA Law Scholarship 2023.
- Internship opportunity: The Executive Office of the President, White House, various deadlines.
- Position opening: Academic mentor and field researcher in Iraq, Cordoba Peace Institute-Geneva (CPI) & ETH Zurich, rolling basis.
- Position opening: Academic mentor for researcher in Mogadishu, Cordoba Peace Institute-Geneva (CPI) & ETH Zurich.
- Position opening: Assistant Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History, University of Tennessee, Fall 2022. Deadline: until an appointment is made.
- Position opening: Postdoc at the Center for Social Concerns and the Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion at the University of Notre Dame, July – September 2023. 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.
- Call for Papers: Special Section – Lifewriting Annual and Islam.