Women’s Rights in Islamic Shari’a: Between Interpretation, Culture and Politics

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Dina Mansour
Keyword(s):  
Women's Rights ◽  
Islamic Law ◽  
The Other ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
The Status ◽  
International Human ◽  
Human Rights Norms ◽  
Free Women ◽  
Status Of Women

AbstractThis article analyses existing biases – whether due to misinterpretation, culture or politics – in the application of women’s rights under Islamic Shari’a law. The paper argues that though in its inception, one purpose of Islamic law may have aimed at elevating the status of women in pre-Islamic Arabia, biases in interpreting such teachings have failed to free women from discrimination and have even added “divinity” to their persistent subjugation. By examining two case studies – Saudi Arabia and Egypt – the article shows that interpretative biases that differ in application from one country to the other further subject women to the selective application of rights. Dictated by norms, culture and tradition rather than a unified Islamic law, the paper shows how culture and politics have contributed to such biases under the pre-text of Islamic dictate. As such, it proposes a re-examination of “personal status” laws across the region in light of international human rights norms.

Islamic Shari’ah and the Rights of Women: The Maldives’ Thirst for International Human Rights Norms of Equality and Non-Discrimination

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shamsul Falaah
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Women's Rights ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
The Status ◽  
Muslim Majority ◽  
International Human ◽  
Human Rights Norms

AbstractThe topic of the rights of women is a contentious and diverse one; it continues to fuel debates in both Muslim-majority and other countries. In principle, all agree that women are entitled to rights. However, particularly in Muslim-majority countries, there is a fierce debate about how and to what extent women are entitled to certain rights. On the one hand, some scholars advocate for the rights of women without deference to gender inequality or discrimination in comparison with men, while on the other hand, other scholars try to defend the inequalities and discriminations that arise from religious or cultural norms. In this regard, the literature relating to the status of women’s rights in the Muslim-majority countries gives rise to vigorous criticism. Much of this criticism relates only to the domestic laws of specific countries and their interaction with the broader international human rights norms. Although there is some discussion about the status of women’s rights in the Maldives, this discussion occurs only in Non-Governmental Organizations (both local and international) and in international forums; apart from an occasional passing mention of the Maldives in other areas of debate, thus far, there has been no academic discourse devoted to the rights of women in the Maldives and their relationship to the international human rights norms of equality and non-discrimination. This article contributes to filling this gap by studying the status of the two norms of international human rights – equality and non-discrimination, in the Maldivian context. The study hypothesises that there are potential tensions within these two norms arising out of the incorporation of Islam in the Maldivian Constitution and that these tensions can be harmonized through the techniques and tools of Islamic Shari’ah. The research finds that a

scholarly journals Women's Rights in Pakistan

sjesr ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 34-41
Author(s):  
Muhammad Aqeel Khan ◽  
Muhammad Zubair
Keyword(s):  
Women's Rights ◽  
Islamic Law ◽  
Great Influence ◽  
The State ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Women In Islam ◽  
The Status ◽  
Status Of Women

The critically discusses the women’s rights in Pakistan. For this purpose, it explores the Patriarchal nature of the society and the historical background of women’s rights in Pakistan. Before it does so, the paper also throws light on the status of women in Islam and enumerates the important rights the woman holds in Islamic law because of Islam’s great influence in the state of Pakistan.

Part II Subsidiary Human Rights Organs, 7 The Commission on the Status of Women

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kabasakal Arat Zehra F
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Women's Rights ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Women's Issues ◽  
The Status ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Status Of Women ◽  
Operational Structure

This chapter describes the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), which was the first international organ ever created to promote women’s rights and equality. The status of women has been on the agenda of the United Nations since its inception and typically addressed as an issue of discrimination in relation to human rights. As the UN’s work on human rights has evolved and expanded, so have its apparatuses and activities on the advancement of women’s rights and status. The CSW played a key role in drafting declarations and treaties that promote women’s rights, organizing world conferences on women, the development of other UN agencies that address women’s issues, and monitoring and evaluating the attention given to women by other agencies. The chapter examines and discusses the CSW’s operational structure, changing agenda, major accomplishments, the difficulties encountered by the Commission, and the controversies surrounding both its work and the UN approach to women’s issues.

scholarly journals Reconciliation between the Islamic Human Rights and International Law: Prospects and Complications

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 609
Author(s):  
Siamak Karamzadeh ◽  
Massoud Alizadeh
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Islamic Law ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Historical Aspect ◽  
Historical Fact ◽  
International Human ◽  
Human Rights Norms ◽  
The Relationship

The relationship between International Human Rights and Islamic Law has been always an arguable debate at the international level. This issue can be considered by jurists in two aspects. First, from National Law perspective, especially in the countries in which the law, to some extent is affected by Islamic rules. Second, by view of International Law to see that to what extent, there would be compatibility or likely contradiction between human rights norms and Islamic Law.Considering the historical aspect of the issue, this article is suggesting that although from the outset, International Law tried to separate religion from policy, but this historical fact would not prevent theoretical conciliation between religion and Human Rights rules. The review of the content of International Human Rights Law reveals that the rules in the systems in most part are compatible. However, in some cases the incompatibility between these two group pf rules is observed. The existence of different basis under Islamic Law and International Law makes the least difference unavoidable. The constant dialogue between Islamic scholars and publicists can decrease this difference in future.

scholarly journals Status of Women in Arab society in Pre and Post Islamic period

2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-32
Author(s):  
Zeenat Haroon
Keyword(s):  
Women's Rights ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Ruling Class ◽  
Islamic Period ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Status ◽  
Status Of Women

Before the advent of Islam, world was filled with darkness and humanity was dislocated. Under these circumstances in the Arab world no one can comprehend each other. By hook or by crook wealthy people ruled the poor. The Poor were weak and considered rightful for punishment. They were subservience to the ruling class. Inspite of her frailty women situation was awful and being treated badly in all her relationship as mothers, sister, daughter and wives. In this article I have written about the situation of women before the advent of Islam and depict the status and value of women after Islam that how Islam raises women's position as a mother, sister, daughter and wife and as a human. Islam declared women's rights, her respect and her importance.

Women's Legal Rights

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanna Bond
Keyword(s):  
Women's Rights ◽  
African Women ◽  
Legal Rights ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Legal Reforms ◽  
The Status ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
Health Rights ◽  
Status Of Women

In the colonial and postcolonial period, African women have advocated for legal reforms that would improve the status of women across the continent. During the colonial period, European common and civil law systems greatly influenced African indigenous legal systems and further entrenched patriarchal aspects of the law. In the years since independence, women’s rights advocates have fought, with varying degrees of success, for women’s equality within the constitution, the family, the political arena, property rights, rights to inheritance, rights to be free from gender-based violence, rights to control their reproductive lives and health, rights to education, and many other aspects of life. Legal developments at the international, national, and local levels reflect the efforts of countless African women’s rights activists to improve the status of women within the region.

scholarly journals United Nations endorsement and support for human rights: An experiment on women’s rights in Pakistan

2020 ◽  
pp. 002234332091283
Author(s):  
Gulnaz Anjum ◽  
Adam Chilton ◽  
Zahid Usman
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Women's Rights ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
International Human ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
New Policies

The United Nations is one of the organizations charged with developing and promoting international human rights law. One of the primary ways that the United Nations tries to do that is by regularly reviewing the human rights practices of member states and then recommending new policies for that state to implement. Although this expends considerable resources, a number of obstacles have made it difficult to empirically assess whether the UN’s review process actually causes countries to improve their human rights practices. To study this topic, we conducted an experiment in Pakistan that tested whether respondents were more likely to support policies aimed at improving women’s rights when they learned that the reforms were proposed by the United Nations. Our results indicate that the respondents who were randomly informed of the United Nations endorsement not only expressed higher support for the policy reforms, but also were more likely to express willingness to ‘mobilize’ in ways that would help the reforms be implemented. Our treatment did not have any effect, however, on respondents that did not already have confidence in the United Nations. This suggests that the international human rights regime may only be able to aid domestic reformers when there is already faith in those institutions.

Overlapping international human rights institutions: Introducing the Women’s Rights Recommendations Digital Database (WR2D2)

2020 ◽  
Vol 57 (5) ◽  
pp. 648-657
Author(s):  
Jillienne Haglund ◽  
Courtney Hillebrecht
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Women's Rights ◽  
Temporal Trends ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Digital Database ◽  
Human Rights Regime ◽  
International Human ◽  
Dense Set

With the proliferation of the international human rights regime, states confront a dense set of institutional commitments. Our knowledge of the influence of these commitments is limited for two reasons. First, scholars largely focus on the effect of treaty ratification on states’ human rights behavior, but states engage with these institutions after ratification via regional human rights court rulings and UN recommendations. Second, scholars often examine these institutions in isolation. The institutions do not operate in isolation, however, nor do states necessarily consider the requests they receive from these institutions independently. In this article, we introduce the Women’s Rights Recommendations Digital Database (WR2D2), which maps the various recommendations international women’s rights institutions make on European states. We begin by discussing the importance of recommendations from international institutions and their relationship with commitment and compliance. We then describe the data collection effort, including two dimensions on which recommendations made to European states vary – precision and action. Next, we report descriptive statistics from the dataset, including regional and temporal trends. We conclude with a discussion of the multifaceted research agenda that this new dataset can facilitate.

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