The April 2011 issue of International Law, Policy and the Family is available online here. The articles include: Lynn Welchman, A Husband’s Authority: Emerging Formulations In Muslim Family Laws; Maznah Mohamad, Malaysian Sharia Reforms in Flux: The Changeable National Character of Islamic Marriage; Jill Howieso
Religious Divorce Dispute in the News
See this recent coverage of public protests designed to persuade an Orthodox Jewish man to provide his ex-wife with a religious divorce known as a get: Mark Oppenheimer, Religious Divorce Dispute Leads to Secular Protest (N.Y. Times, 1/3/2011).
Surge in Iran’s Divorce Rate
Here’s a story reporting that the divorce rate in Iran has tripled over the past decade, reflecting changes in the attitudes of women in Iran toward marriage, relationships, and careers. See William Yong, Iran’s Divorce Rate Stirs Fears of Society in Crisis (N.Y. Times, Dec. 6, 2010).
Premarital Sex and Abandoned Infants Concern for Malaysians
See this article by Liz Gooch in the N.Y. Times: Malaysia Struggles with Baby Abandonment.
“The Female Factor”
This series of articles in the International Herald Tribune – reprinted in the New York Times – examines “the most recent shifts in women’s power, prominence, and impact on societies around the world.” Earlier installments have been noted in this blog; recent articles consider women’s career opportunities and family obligations in France (“Where Having it All Doesn’t Mean Having Equality
International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family
Online advance access to the articles in the August 2010 issue is available from the International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family. The articles include pieces by Farah Deeba Chowshury on “Dowry, Women, and Law in Bangladesh;” Ahmed on “Personal Autonomy and the Option of Religious Law;” and by Ebenezer Durojaye and Victoria Balogun on “Human Rights Implications of Mandatory Premarital HIV Testing in Nigeria.”
Veiling
See this piece in the Style Section of the New York Times by Lorraine Ali: Behind the Veil (with an accompanying slide show).
Conflict Between Civil and Religious Courts in Malaysian Custody Case
As Liz Gooch reports in the New York Times, in a piece titled ”Malaysian Custody Dispute Lost Between Courts,” Malaysia has a two-tier judicial system, with Islamic Shariahcourts handling family law disputes involving Muslim families and secular civil courts hearing non-Muslim cases. this leads to jurisdictional conflict when families include both Muslim and non-Muslim members, or in cases in which one party converts to Islam (sometimes for strategic reasons). Gooch’s story describes a recent
New Issue: International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family
Advance access to the April 2010 issue of the International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family is now available online. The issue includes these articles:
Paul Borghs and Bart Eeckhout on LGB Rights in Belgium, 1999–2007: A Historical Survey of a Velvet Revolution:
Liz Trinder, Alan Firth, and Christopher Jenks,‘So Presumably Things Have Moved on Since Then?’ The Management of Risk Allegations in Child Contact Dispute Resolution;
Burqa, Niqab, Hijab: Debating the Veil
The debate in France over whether to restrict women from wearing traditional Muslim garments took a new turn this week with the introduction of a draft bill providing that “nobody, in places open to the public or on streets, may wear an outfit or an accessory whose effect is to hide the face”. There’s a good piece about this in the Economist: “The War of French Dressing: A plan to ban the wearing of the burqa in public stokes new controversy.” Here’s an