Ethical Guidelines for Islamic Family Law, Project Concept Paper
In many Muslim countries, the gender bias of family laws is an obstacle to realizing the full human dignity and developing the full human potential of men and – especially – women. One of the obstacles to family law reform, in turn, is the lack of coherent alternative religious visions capable of challenging patriarchal orthodoxies on their own theoretical ground. We ask Muslim experts to meet this challenge by elaborating “Ethical Guidelines for Islamic Family Law.”
The Need for Guidelines on Islamic Family Law
1) The problem Even within otherwise secularized legal systems, personal status and family law continues to be governed by understandings of Islamic law codified and adapted by modern nation-states. By according unequal rights and obligations to men and women without regard for changing social realities, these codes of family law enshrine patriarchal assumptions, disadvantage women and lend themselves to abuse, in conflict with Muslim countries’ international commitments to non-discrimination. Serious legal and social reform aiming at gender justice must among other things address this Islamic frame of reference from within the tradition in an intellectually convincing way, in order to change the terms of a debate in which conservatives claim a monopoly on religious legitimacy.
2) The academic demand
Over the past five years, the Oslo Coalition on Freedom of Religion or Belief has built up a track record of encouraging and facilitating internal Islamic debate on pluralism and equality, by creating forums where reform-minded and internationally acclaimed Muslim academics could meet and discuss. During three international conferences on the topic ”New Directions in Islamic Thought” (see resultant publication) the role of Muslim women in a modern society has proven to be the central concern. Specifically, a strong need for a set of “Guidelines on Islamic Family Law” was identified at our international conference in Istanbul in January 2007. The Oslo Coalition was given the mandate to follow up the conclusions of the conference. Since then, we have also experienced a great interest from researchers and students across the Muslim world in our ongoing work.
3) Grass roots/NGO requests
The Oslo Coalition has encountered great demand from grassroots NGOs for religious law resources of high credibility and quality that they can refer to in their work for human rights and conflict prevention. In their experience on the ground, the need for such resources has been exacerbated by new geopolitical factors. The vacuum of traditional religious authority in formerly Communist countries, notably in Central Asia, and the global security gap after 9/11 are being filled by neo-fundamentalist networks. Frustrated by a resurgent conservative religious opposition to their work to for human rights and women’s empowerment, NGOs seek to better equip themselves with religious reform arguments.
The input of the Oslo Coalition
The Oslo Coalition proposes to facilitate the elaboration of a set of guidelines for understanding and reforming Islamic family law, to serve as a curriculum, reference, and resource. The guidelines should be a result of fresh legal reasoning (ijtihad) using methodologies drawn from the Islamic ethical and legal tradition, informed by ethical concerns, international standards, and the experience of Muslim women.We have already begun this process, with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs department of Human Rights and Democracy. A working group of Muslim experts has been set up with a broad range of expertise and perspectives, including Sunnis and Shi‘ites, men and women, scholars of Islamic sciences and scholars of the modern humanities and social sciences. The working group will meet in a series of closed, focused workshops, elaborating by stages a working document. Between meetings, they will keep in touch by a dedicated mailing list and eventually a website with a resource bank.
Oslo Coalition supplies the funding, a small secretariat consisting of three Norwegian experts on Islam and an administrator. The secretariat carries out the practical arrangements for the workshops, coordinates the drafting of the report, and arranges for its publication and dissemination. The process is expected to take three years starting from 2007, when the first of these workshops was carried out.
The Output
The process will result in two publications. One will be an English-language edited volume of academic papers on aspects of Islamic family law reform, selected from the proceedings of the project workshops. The other and main publication will be a shorter document, the “Guidelines,” setting out methodologies and arguments for reform in a clear and concise manner, for translation into several languages.The “Ethical Guidelines for Islamic Family Law” document
This final product will not be a model code of family law (*), but a set of more broadly useful guidelines. These guidelines are intended to serve as a curriculum for imams, religious leaders, and jurists; as a reference for legislators and policy-makers framing family law and for state authorities implementing it; and as a resource for advocacy groups (NGOs). They will not presuppose implementation by the state, but can also inform Muslim family arrangements in wholly secular or Muslim-minority societies where Islamic law forms no part of positive law. At this stage, however, we primarily address conventional legal understandings in Muslim-majority environments, without prejudice to the question of a separate “jurisprudence for minorities” (fiqh al-aqaliyya).
The "Ethical Guidelines for Islamic Family Law" book
This is intended to provide academics with a tool for further work in the field of Islamic family law reform. Through the international expert workshops, articles will be collected from the foremost experts in the field, and will be edited into a single anthology. The book will be published in 2010.
The issues that need to be addressed include: equality before the law, rights and duties in the family, citizenship, arbitration, the marriage contract, dower (mahr), maintenance (nafaqa) and protection (qiwwama), divorce (in various forms), inheritance, custody of children, polygamy and domestic violence.
Assessment of Impact
The Ethical Guidelines for Islamic Family Law should be assessed on their usefulness as a tool in the hands of those advocating women’s legal equality. We propose to provide the document in local translations to partner NGOs free of cost. In return, we ask them to fill out a questionnaire after two years to report how they have used the Guidelines, what reception they have met both in policy circles and in religious circles, and how, in their assessment, this has changed the terms of the debate.Oslo, 27.10.08
Kari Vogt Lena Larsen Christian Moe
* A model code of Islamic family law is, for instance, being developed by the Malaysian women’s organisation Sisters in Islam. A universally applicable model code is difficult to develop because of the variety of legal traditions (Sunni and Shi‘i, common-law and continental) in the Muslim world. National NGOs who wish to develop model codes for their own advocacy work should be able to look to the Guidelines for support.