ISLAMIC LAW IN THE NEWS The Department of Justice announced that Stafford County, Virginia recently repealed an ordinance that prevented the development of a cemetery for people of the Islamic faith. Stacker has compiled a list of abortion laws in 15 countries, including Saudi Arabia, where scholars comment it is easier to obtain an abortion … Continue reading Islamic Law in the News Roundup
SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP On Islamic Law: In "The Textual Evolution of the Ottoman Şeyhülislams’ Fetvas: A Cross-Corpora Computational Analysis" (Der Islam 98, no. 2 (2021)), Bogac Ergene (The University of Vermont) and Atabey Kaygun (Istanbul Technical University) "use a mix of computational techniques to identify textual shifts in the Ottoman şeyhülislams’ fetvas between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries." In … Continue reading Weekend Scholarship Roundup
SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP On Islamic Law: In "Experiencing ‘nikah Captivity’ in the West: Gendered Conflicts over Ending Muslim Marriages" (Journal of Muslims in Europe, online, September 16, 2021), Anika Liversage (The Danish Center for Social Science Research), based on a series of interviews with Muslim women, finds that second-generation Muslims in Denmark are more easily able … Continue reading Weekend Scholarship Roundup
Islamic Law in the News: Nailah Dean, writer and activist, has introduced her "ISMS Project," comprising a series of images to demonstrate what she terms the "Muslim Marriage Crisis" in an age of "digital, hyper-visual time" that represent sexism, ageism, racism, and colorism. The project represents, in addition to these four "-isms," the Muslim woman's … Continue reading Islamic Law in the News Roundup
Muslim countries, especially Iran, have shown an increasing interest in establishing "milk banks" whereby preterm infants can receive breast milk as opposed to formula, although the practice is being considered from an Islamic perspective, which provides for a tenet of "milk kinship." The Taliban have stated that women would be allowed to study at university … Continue reading Islamic Law in the News Roundup
Al Sudais, the President of the General Presidency for the Affairs of the Two Holy Mosques in Saudi Arabia, appointed two women, Dr. Fatima Al Rushood and Dr. Al Anoud Al Aboud, as his assistants, marking a first in the history of the administration of the Muslim holy sites. The Council of Islamic Ideology (Pakistan) … Continue reading Islamic Law in the News Roundup
By Nurfadzilah Yahaya Powers of attorney form the basis of the second chapter of my book Fluid Jurisdictions: Colonial Law and Arabs in Southeast Asia (Cornell University Press, 2020). The digital collection of these documents produced by the Arab communities in the Straits Settlements (mostly Singapore) in the Koh Seow Chuan Collection in the National … Continue reading Portals to the Future: Translations of Powers of Attorney
By Nurfadzilah Yahaya My book Fluid Jurisdictions: Colonial Law and Arabs in Southeast Asia (Cornell University Press, 2020) traces changing notions of family and clan across legal cultures in the realm of family law. Supposedly, Islamic law does not enter the secular sphere of politics during the colonial period. Yet, although dissipation of political power … Continue reading Family Law as Colonial Specter of Shelter
By Nurfadzilah Yahaya Two phenomena struck me as particularly incongruous while researching for my book Fluid Jurisdictions: Colonial Law and Arabs in Southeast and plagued me throughout the process of writing it. The first was “illegal occupations” (‘onwettige occupaties’) which referred to land occupied by populations who were not allowed to own the land according … Continue reading What does Equality Mean in the Colonies?
A report by the International Social Service entitled "Kafalah: Preliminary analysis of national and cross-border practices" discusses the concept of kafālah, a form of child care recognized under Islamic law, and its reception across a number of jurisdictions globally. In "The Concept of Ecological Balance and Environmental Conservation: An Islamic Practice" (SSRN, July 2, 2021), … Continue reading Weekend Scholarship Roundup
