Ebook: Women, Family, and Gender in Islamic Law (Themes in Islamic Law)

"Women, Family, and Gender in Islamic Law", written by a non-Muslim Georgetwon University history professor: Judith Tucker. Chapter titles: Woman as wife and man as husband: making the marital bargain (pre-twentieth-century practices, modern reformers); Woman and man as divorced: asserting rights (the legal tradition; reform); Woman and man as legal subjects (tradition, reform); Woman and man in gendered space: submitting (sexuality, juridical tradition, reform). The author briefly mentions various male Muslim women's-rights reformers of the 1860-s1920s. In discussing hadith marriage rules, the author opined: "Jurists may vary somewhat in the emphasis they place on the couple's or the man's pure enjoyment of sex versus marital sex as the key to legal reproduction, but the marriage contract is first and foremost for the establishment of licit sexual relations between a man and a woman" (p.42). The author briefly reviews topics of: What rights women had to refuse a marriage proposal; marriage contracts and dowries; some Shia vs Sunni differences regarding marriage rights and duties; a wife's right to object to her husband's demands; support; her religious devotions; discussion of the Quran's admonishment for `beating' a wife; when a man travels how many wives does he need to take along; maturity at time of marriage; Muta (temp) marriages. The author cites various marriage laws from numerous Muslim counties, but no real detailed in-depth discussion of them. This is the main shortcoming of this book, it provides a `shotgun' look at many gender issues, but while it quotes from the hadith and Quran occasionally, there are no firm `conclusions' regarding the legal rights of Muslim women. As the author herself noted: "I have not found it easy to provide a neat summary of the rules because of the diversity of legal opinion among the classical jurists, the reforming thinkers and officials, and contemporary activists" (p. 82). The author briefly notes how the different legal-schools (Hanbali, Hanfi, Maliki, etc.) differ in their interpretations. This book is useful for a student to begin to learn about the multitude of different issues pertaining to women's right in Muslim `law.' This book raises many questions regarding many `gender rules', and provides good perspectives, but few definitive `answers.' It is not written from a `feminist liberation' perspective, but an inquiring perspective in reviewing major gender issues. The issues are not reviewed in either confrontational or judgmental perspectives. This book provides a very useful look at the many sexist-related `regulations' that exist scattered throughout the Muslim community. A good (4 stars) look at "here are the sexism issues", weak (one star) on the "here are the historical hadith views", and empty regarding "here are the reforms" to establish Western secular-rights for Muslim women.