ISLAMIC LAW IN THE NEWS
- Commenting on whether HTS would implement sharīʿa in Syria and, if so, in what manner, a pundit and former U.S. Army soldier remarked, “People at the State Department were the ones telling us the Taliban would moderate, that they were seeking legitimacy.” Sharaa–previously known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani–the head of HTS, once “espousing violence to achieve its goal of establishing a state governed by Islamic law (Sharia),” “said the group, which was once aligned with Islamic State and al- Qaeda and is designated as a terrorist organisation by the UN and many countries, will be ‘dissolved’ at an upcoming national dialogue conference but gave no further details.”
- “The Iranian government state media . . . confirmed that it had arrested an Italian journalist Cecilia Sala for allegedly violating Islamic law. . . . However, no further details about the violation were provided.”
- “Iran executed Meysam Farhadi Farashi and Reza Bakhtiari, two prisoners sentenced to death on charges of ‘premeditated murder,’ on 2 January in Dizel Abad Prison in Kermanshah, Kermanshah Province.”
- “Afghanistan‘s Taliban leader has ordered that new residential buildings are constructed without windows looking onto ‘places usually used by women’ and said that existing windows with such views should be blocked to prevent ‘obscene acts.'”
- “The Taliban‘s Supreme Court has announced that a woman has been flogged in public on charges of ‘theft’ in Andkhoy district of Faryab province.”
- “All states should follow Terengganu’s [Malaysia] lead in publicly caning a man convicted by the shariah court for khalwat [close proximity],” said PAS spiritual leader Hashim Jasin. Hashim noted that public caning “is not cruel or humiliating” and should be implemented to “uphold and honor Islamic law.” Perlis Mufti Datuk Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin, better known as Dr Maza, said that public caning under Islamic law “should be limited to adultery.” He noted “there were no stipulations in Islamic law which states that khalwat (close proximity) offenders should be publicly caned.” 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.”
CASES AND FATWĀS
- “The Lahore High Court [Pakistan] has ruled that a non-Muslim cannot inherit the property of their Muslim relative under Islamic law.”
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:
- 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.
- Call for Abstracts: Middle East Medievalists, November 22-25 (Deadline: February 5, 2025).
- Writing Workshop: The American Institute for Maghrib Studies Graduate Student Writing Workshop, February 27-28, 2025 (Application deadline: January 3, 2025).
- Conference: The 2025 Annual Conference of the Humanities and Social Sciences at LUMS, Lahore, April 18-20, 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).
- Summer Language Intensive Program: Istanbul University Institute for Islamic Studies, July 7 – August 8, 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.