ISLAMIC LAW IN THE NEWS
- “Syria‘s rebel leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, has dismissed the online controversy over videos showing him gesturing to a young woman to cover her hair before he posed for a photo with her last week. . . . ‘I did not force her. But it’s my personal freedom. I want photos taken for me the way that suits me,’ Sharaa said.”
- Experts have commented that “[t]he launch of two exchange-traded funds (ETFs) involving Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul market, the largest stock exchange in the Middle East, and the HKEX signals an investment shift between the two jurisdictions.”
- “According to a recent investigation by The Times, the number of sharia councils in the UK has surged to 85 since the first one was established in 1982.”
- “Britain‘s shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick has been heavily criticised for saying that no ‘sharia courts’ should exist in the country, referring to the informal bodies issuing non-legally binding religious rulings on marriage.” For more content and context on Islamic family law in the United Kingdom, consul our “Roundtable: Islamic Family Law in the UK: Akhter v. Khan.”
- “Russia’s top Islamic authority issued a ruling that allows men to have multiple wives, the state-run news agency RIA Novosti reported Thursday, citing Moscow’s head Mufti. Mufti Ildar Alyautdinov, who serves as deputy chairman of the Ulama Council of Russia’s Spiritual Administration of Muslims, said religious polygyny would be allowed in cases when the ‘wife is unable to bear children due to her health, due to the end of her reproductive age or other objective reasons, such as the sexual incompatibility of the wife,’ but also if she ‘does not want to have children.'” Consult the Family Code of the Russian Federation, which explicitly prohibits polygamy under Article 14.
CASES AND FATWĀS
- “The Dewan Negara [the Malaysian Senate] . . . approved five more Bills, two of which are related to Islamic law. Among the Bills approved were the Administration of Islamic Law (Federal Territories) (Amendment) Bill 2024 and the Syariah Court Civil Procedure (Federal Territories) (Amendment) Bill 2024 under the Prime Minister’s Department, as well as the Data Sharing Bill 2024 under the Digital Ministry.”
- “The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has announced the adoption of Shariah Standard No. 59 issued by the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI). This standard, focusing on the Sale of Debt, has been implemented with immediate effect and comes with specific clarifications and amendments from the SBP.” For the relevant legal framework, consult the Banking Companies Ordinance (1962) and Shariah Standard No. 59.
- “According to the Survey of Women’s Life Experience (SPHPN) in 2024, female circumcision was still practiced by 46.3 percent of those surveyed in Indonesia. . . . Government Regulation No. 28/2024 has banned the practice of mutilation or cutting female genitals.” For the relevant government regulation, consult the Government Regulation Number 28 of 2024 on the Implementation of Law Number 17 of 2023 on Health. For a case from the Netherlands involving FGM and free speech, consult the recent case of Femmes for Freedom v. As-Soennah Mosque.
UPCOMING EVENTS AND OPPORTUNITIES
PIL & Harvard Calendar:
- Call for Submissions: Journal of Islamic Law Special Issue, January 13, 2025.
- Islamic Law Speaker Series: “The Making of the Modern Muslim State: Islam and Governance in the Middle East and North Africa (Princeton University Press, 2024),” Malika Zeghal, Program in Islamic Law, February 11, 2025.
- Islamic Law Speaker Series: “The Genealogy of the Death Penalty for Apostasy and Blasphemy in Islam” by Mohsen Kadivar, Program in Islamic Law, March 11, 2025.
- Islamic Law Speaker Series: “A Cultural History of the Arabic Book: Digital Explorations of Writerly Practices and Text Reuse” by Sarah Savant, Program in Islamic Law, April 8, 2025.
Calendar:
- 2025 Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Annual Meeting, San Francisco, January 7-11, 2025.
- Hurst Summer Institute 2025, University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School, January 15, 2025.
- EUME Berliner Seminar: “The Politics of Choice: The 2003 Entry Law to Israel, the Phenomenology of Singlehood and Love Across Borders Among Palestinians” by Towibah Majdub, January 22, 2025.
- Fellowship: The University Center for Human Values in Law and Normative Thinking 2025-26, Princeton University, January 22, 2025.
- BRAIS Prize 2025: Call for Submissions, January 24, 2025.
- Call for Editors: Law & Society Review, 2025-2026, February 1, 2025.
- Call for Editors: Book Review Editor for Law & Society Review, 2025-2026, February 1, 2025.
- Writing Workshop: The American Institute for Maghrib Studies Graduate Student Writing Workshop, February 27-28, 2025 (Application deadline: January 3, 2025).
- Workshop: Annual Comparative Law Work-in-Progress Workshop, May 1-3, 2025 (Call for Papers deadline: February 5, 2024).
- Call for Papers: “ Islamic and Jewish Law in the Modern Economy,” University of Villanova School of Law, Villanova, Pennsylvania, May 5-6, 2025 (Abstract submission deadline: January 31, 2025).
- Conference: Eleventh Conference of the School of Mamluk Studies, Queen Mary University, UK, May 8-10, 2025 (Paper proposals: October 31, 2024; Panel proposals: November 30, 2024).
- LSA 2025 Annual Meeting: Chicago, Illinois from May 22-25, 2025 (Early registration: December 3, 2024; registration: January 3, 2025).
- Conference: Law, Culture, and Humanities 27th Annual Conference, Georgetown University, June 17-18, 2025 (Call for Papers deadline: January 31, 2025).
- Conference: The Middle Ages in the Modern World, London Strand Campus, King’s College London, June 24-26, 2025 (Call for Papers deadline: January 13, 2025).
- Conference: MESA 2025, Westin Downtown, Washington DC, November 22-25, 2025.
- Position opening: Senior Lecturer in Law, History, and Society, Vanderbilt University, 2025.
- Search for Editor: International Journal of Middle East Studies, until an appointment is made.
- 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.
- Call for Papers: Special Section – Lifewriting Annual and Islam.
- Call for Manuscripts: Advances in the Study of Islam, Edinburgh University Press.