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Abstract
This ground-breaking collection investigates the relationship between feminist activism and legal reform as a pathway to gender justice and social change.
Since the advent of feminist movements legal reform has been a popular and yet contentious vehicle for seeking women’s rights and empowerment. This important book looks at comparative insights drawn from field-based research on the processes, the challenges, and the outcomes of legal reform and feminist activism. Feminist Activism, Women's Rights, and Legal Reform brings together cases from Middle East, Latin America, and Asia of the successes and failures of reform efforts concerning the promulgation and implementation of new family laws and domestic violence codes.
'The essays in this wonderful collection range across different jurisdictions and legal systems (in the Middle East and North Africa, Bangladesh, Ghana and Brazil) to present deeply contextualized examinations of the origins of and relationship between feminist action and legal change. The material is rich and the analyses compelling; it really is a significant contribution.'
Lynn Welchman, professor of law in the Middle East and North Africa, SOAS
'Law has been both a tool for marginalizing women and a pathway to their empowerment. This is a timely collection of case studies of feminist struggles for legal reform, both successes and failures, in diverse contexts in the Middle East, West Africa, South Asia, and Latin America. It sheds much new light on the complex relationship between feminist activism and legal reform.'
Ziba Mir-Hosseini, Centre for Islamic and Middle Eastern Law, SOAS, and founding member of Musawah (www.musawah.org).
'This exciting collection is a major contribution to the scholarship of feminist social change activism everywhere. Analytically and methodologically sophisticated case studies consider the large and complicated historical, social, economic, cultural, and educational forces faced by women in their
struggles for legal reform. These engaged articles and the book as a whole focus deeply perceptive and respectful attention on the urgent strategic issues faced by feminist activists of all stripes, drawing vital lessons for us all.'
Angela Miles, University of Toronto
Mulki Al-Sharmani is an Academy of Finland research fellow and lecturer in the Study of Religion Unit, Faculty of Theology, University of Helsinki.
Table of Contents
| Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feminisms and Development | i | ||
| About the Editor | ii | ||
| Title | iii | ||
| Copyright | iv | ||
| Contents | v | ||
| Acknowledgements | vii | ||
| Preface | ix | ||
| Introduction Legal Reform and Feminist Activism | 1 | ||
| Legal reform and feminist activism: selected case studies | 3 | ||
| Revisiting binaries and ‘uniform’ issues | 4 | ||
| Engaging the state: the pitfalls, gains, and limits | 10 | ||
| Implementing legal reforms: the social embeddedness and gendering of legal practices | 15 | ||
| Law reform and gender justice: complex connections? | 18 | ||
| Note | 20 | ||
| References | 20 | ||
| 1 Debating Islamic Family Law in Palestine: Citizenship, Gender, and ‘Islamic’ Idioms | 23 | ||
| Political context of the debate in Palestine | 24 | ||
| The Model Parliament for Women and Legislation | 28 | ||
| Conclusion | 41 | ||
| Notes | 43 | ||
| References | 44 | ||
| 2 Readjusting Women’s Too Many Rights: The State, the Public Voice, and Women’s Rights in South Yemen | 48 | ||
| Setting the parameters of the new Yemeni woman | 50 | ||
| Promulgating ‘women’s law’ in South Yemen | 52 | ||
| Women with too many rights | 55 | ||
| More rights to the woman – no to selling her rights! | 58 | ||
| Girls’ education or women’s rights in the family? | 60 | ||
| Women’s rights, politics, and ground for bargaining | 66 | ||
| Conclusion | 67 | ||
| Notes | 68 | ||
| References | 70 | ||
| 3 Reforming Egyptian Family Laws: The Debate about a New Substantive Code | 73 | ||
| Proposed changes in personal status laws | 75 | ||
| Women’s rights organizations and reforming family law: multiple terms of reference | 78 | ||
| Contemporary religious scholarship and Egyptian feminist legal activism | 81 | ||
| Dissenting voices: culturalist or religious purists? | 87 | ||
| Western feminism and alternative religion-based models of reform | 90 | ||
| Supreme Constitutional Court: alternative engagement with religious tradition | 94 | ||
| Conclusion | 95 | ||
| Notes | 96 | ||
| References | 99 | ||
| 4 Men Aboard? Movement for a Uniform Family Code in Bangladesh | 101 | ||
| The political and social context in Bangladesh | 104 | ||
| Personal laws and special laws concerning women in Bangladesh | 107 | ||
| Uniform Family Code: the proposed changes | 110 | ||
| Strategies used for mobilization: why were they ineffective? | 111 | ||
| Unpacking resistance | 117 | ||
| Conclusion | 121 | ||
| Acknowledgement | 123 | ||
| Notes | 123 | ||
| References | 123 | ||
| 5 From Status to Rights: The Shifting Dimensions of Women’s Activism in Iranian Family Law Reform | 125 | ||
| Introduction: socio-legal developments in Iranian family law | 125 | ||
| Framing discourses: from ‘women’s rights to ‘women’s status’ | 128 | ||
| Islamic government and family protection | 132 | ||
| Lobbying for the protection of women and family | 136 | ||
| Family Protection Bill: the commission’s report | 142 | ||
| Conclusion: political stakes and family protection | 146 | ||
| Notes | 147 | ||
| References | 149 | ||
| 6 Moroccan Divorce Law, Family Court Judges, and Spouses’ Claims: Who Pays the Cost When a Marriage is Over? | 151 | ||
| Research methods: interviews, ‘hanging out’, and court rulings | 153 | ||
| Centres d’écoute practices: making law happen for clients | 155 | ||
| The Moudawana (1957/8), divorce practices, and legal reform | 157 | ||
| Shiqaq: a catch-all complaint | 160 | ||
| Rulings as records of the divorce process | 165 | ||
| Judicial responses to divorce requests: concluding marital disputes and attributing blame | 168 | ||
| Conclusion: some reasons to celebrate, some cause for caution | 172 | ||
| Acknowledgements | 174 | ||
| Notes | 174 | ||
| References | 175 | ||
| 7 Organizing to Monitor Implementation of the Maria da Penha Law in Brazil | 177 | ||
| Feminist activism and the LMP | 178 | ||
| The Maria da Penha Law Observatory and the issue of implementation | 187 | ||
| Concluding remarks | 195 | ||
| Notes | 197 | ||
| References | 199 | ||
| 8 Implementing Domestic Violence Legislation in Ghana: The Role of Institutions | 203 | ||
| Contextualizing the Domestic Violence Act in Ghana | 205 | ||
| The legal and policy framework on domestic violence in Ghana | 209 | ||
| Implementing the Act: contextual and institutional challenges | 213 | ||
| The institutions | 221 | ||
| Conclusion | 230 | ||
| Notes | 231 | ||
| References | 232 | ||
| About the Contributors | 235 | ||
| Index | 238 |