Mumtaz Bibi's broken heart

2009 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rohit De
Keyword(s):  
South Asian ◽  
Women's Rights ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Islamic Law ◽  
Muslim Women ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Legislative Process ◽  
The Public ◽  
Traditional Practitioners ◽  
Women In India

This article investigates the formation of a political consensus between conservative ulama, Muslim reformers, nationalist politicians and women's organisations, which led to the enactment of the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act in 1939. The Act was a radical piece of social legislation that gave South Asian Muslim women greater rights for divorce than those enjoyed by other women in India and Britain. Instead of placing women's rights and Islamic law as opposed to each other, the legislation employed a heuristic that guaranteed women's rights by applying Islamic law, allowing Muslim politicians, ulama and women's groups to find common ground on an Islamic modernity. By interrogating the legislative process and the rhetorical positions employed to achieve this consensus, the paper hopes to map how the women's question was being negotiated anew in the space created in the legislatures. The legislative debate over family law redefined the boundaries of the public and the private, and forced nationalists to reconsider the ‘women's question’. The transformation of Islamic law through secular legislation also gave greater licence to the courts in their interpretation, and widened the schism between traditional practitioners of fiqh and modern lawyers.

scholarly journals Sayyid Mumtaz Ali and ‘Huquq un-Niswan’: An Advocate of Women's Rights in Islam in the Late Nineteenth Century

1990 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gail Minault
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Women's Rights ◽  
Islamic Law ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Third Place ◽  
Late Nineteenth

Sometime in the late 1890s, Sayyid Mumtaz Ali visited Aligarh and happened to show Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan the manuscript of his treatise in defense of women's rights in Islamic law, Huquq un-Niswan. As he began to read it, Sir Sayyid looked shocked. He then opened it to a second place and his face turned red. As he read it at a third place, his hands started to tremble. Finally, he tore up the manuscript and threw it into the wastepaper basket. Fortunately, at that moment a servant arrived to announce lunch, and as Sir Sayyid left his office, Mumtaz Ali snatched his mutilated manuscript from the trash. He waited until after Sir Sayyid's death in 1898, however, to publish Huquq un-Niswan.

scholarly journals PEREMPUAN DAN HAK ASASI MANUSIA DALAM PERSPEKTIF HUKUM ISLAM

2010 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 440
Author(s):  
Uswatun Hasanah
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Women's Rights ◽  
Islamic Law ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Proper Understanding ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Correct Understanding

AbstrakIn Islamic law, there are principles of equality among all human beings,including equality between men and women. To manifest the principles ofequality, proper understanding of Islamic law and human rights is needed.Human rights, including women's rights are often mentioned in al-Qur'anand al-Hadits. Islam comes to bring fresh air for women because God'srevelation descended to Prophet Muhammad talks much about women, bothabout their rights and obligations. Although Islam has been present for morethan fourteen centuries ago, but the provisions contained in al-Qur 'an andthe al-Hadith, as sources of Islamic law have not been realized properly inIslamic society, even until today there are still practices in Islamiccommunities that put Muslims women not as they should. Although therewere not many, but the condition can lead to incorrect understanding ofIslam in society that Islam less aware ofwomen's rights. Infact, Islam givesgreat attention and gives a respectable position for women. In order that thewomen's rights can be implemented appropriately, every Muslim shouldunderstand Islamic law well and correctly, so they can realize their rightsand obligations as servants of God, as members of society and citizens.Human rights and women issues should be perceived as a problem faced notby women only, but also by all people in society. Awareness about women'srights in Islam cannot establish by itself but must be cultivated through acorrect dissemination of correct understanding to the community,particularly Muslims, both men and women.

scholarly journals Women's Rights in Recent Inter-American Human Rights Jurisprudence

2017 ◽  
Vol 111 ◽  
pp. 258-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard Duhaime
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Reproductive Health ◽  
Violence Against Women ◽  
Women's Rights ◽  
Ethnic Background ◽  
Private Sphere ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Migrant Status ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public

While certain aspects of women's rights had been addressed in earlier OAS instruments and more generally in the American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man and in the American Convention on Human Rights, many consider that the issue of women's rights was first incorporated in the normative corpus of the Inter-American Human Rights System (IAHRS) with the 1994 adoption of the Belém do Pará Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence Against Women. This treaty obliges states to prevent, punish, and eradicate violence against women, taking special account of vulnerabilities due to race, ethnic background, migrant status, age, pregnancy, socioeconomic situation, etc. It defines the concept of violence against women and forces states to ensure that women live free of violence in the public and private sphere. It also grants the Commission and the Court the ability to process individual complaints regarding alleged violations of the treaty. Since 1994, the Commission has also established a Rapporteurship on the rights of women, which assists the IACHR in its thematic or country reports and visits, as well as in the processing of women's rights–related petitions. In recent years, the jurisprudence of the Commission and the Court has addressed several fundamental issues related to women's rights, in particular regarding violence against women, women's right to equality, and reproductive health.

“Authentic Sharia” as Cause and Cure for Women’s Human Rights Violations in Northern Nigeria

Hawwa ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 9 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 152-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annie Bunting
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Women's Rights ◽  
Muslim Women ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Northern Nigeria ◽  
Poverty Eradication ◽  
Legal Studies ◽  
Women's Human Rights

AbstractBy analysing the proposals contained in the report, “Promoting Women’s Rights Through Sharia in Northern Nigeria,” which was published by the Centre for Islamic Legal Studies at Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) in Zaria in 2005, this paper explores the complexities and consequences of a rights strategy grounded in “an authentic understanding of Sharia.” The paper argues that this strategy may further constrain the discourses of debate for Muslim women in northern Nigeria. It also discusses how the strategy privatizes responsibility for poverty eradication, and how it ignores competing languages of social change, including Nigerian and international women’s rights.

scholarly journals The Twenty-first Annual Conference of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women

2004 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 136-139
Author(s):  
Nadira Mustapha
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Islamic Law ◽  
Muslim Women ◽  
Annual Conference ◽  
The Public ◽  
The North ◽  
Islamic Countries ◽  
Canadian Council ◽  
Girl Guides

The Canadian Council of Muslim Women (CCMW) held its Twenty-firstAnnual Conference, October 4, 2003 at Crowne Plaza, Montreal, Quebec.CCMW was established in 1982 to attain and maintain equality, equity,and empowerment for Canadian Muslim women in the North Americansetting. Participants from across Canada came to celebrate CCMW’srenowned presence throughout the nation as well as to discuss issuesrelated to the conference: “Engaging Muslim Women in Civic and SocialChange.” The conference was officially opened with the reading of theQur’an in Arabic, English, and French, followed by the Girl Guides ofCanada, Muslim Chapter, singing the Canadian national anthem. Theywere accompanied by the CCMW attendees.Dr. Homa Hoodfar (Concordia University, Quebec) opened the conferencewith the first session: “Building Civil Society in our TransnationalWorld.” Civil society, defined as a society ruled by laws and norms andobeyed by the governing body and the public, was discussed, along with itsrelationship in dealing with such minorities as Muslim women in Canada.A civil society permits a group of people to lobby and work with the publicin a democratic system to facilitate change and development. However,transnational support and solidarity are required in conjunction with lobbying.Hoodfar effectively illustrated this concept by bringing to light theorganization Women Living under Muslim Law (WLUML), which currentlycomprises 4000 individuals and organizations and has surveyed theimplementation of Islamic law in many Islamic countries. Along with servingas a platform to network, the organization exists as a powerful institutionto help Muslim women earn their civil rights and liberties.The presentation “Restoring the Glory of Muslim Women: Leadership,Scholarship, and the Family” by Dr. Azizah al Hibri (University ofRichmond, Richond, VA) passionately described another influentialwomen’s organization. Al Hibri, who has visited 12 Islamic countries, high ...

scholarly journals When the Personal Is Always Political: Norwegian Muslims’ Arguments for Women’s Rights

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 59-66
Author(s):  
Hannah Helseth
Keyword(s):  
Women's Rights ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
Individual Autonomy ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Muslim Population ◽  
The Public ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
Implicit And Explicit

For almost two decades, the public debate about Islam in Western Europe has been dominated by concerns about the lack of gender equality in the racialized Muslim population. There has been a tendency to victimize “the Muslim woman” rather than to encourage Muslim women’s participation in the public debate about their lives. This contribution to the study of discourses on Muslim women is an analysis of arguments written by Muslims about women’s rights. The data consists of 239 texts written by self-defined Muslims in major Norwegian newspapers about women’s rights. I will discuss two findings from the study. The first is an appeal to be personal when discussing issues of domestic violence and racism is combined with an implicit and explicit demand to represent all Muslims in order to get published in newspapers—which creates an ethno-religious threshold for participation in the public debate. The second finding is that, across different positions and different religious affiliations, from conservative to nearly secular, and across the timeline, from 2000 to 2012, there is a dominant understanding of women’s rights as individual autonomy. These findings will be discussed from different theoretical perspectives to explore how arguments for individual autonomy can both challenge and amplify neoliberal agendas.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document