Introduction: Current Perspectives on Islamic Family Law in Africa
Date
2021
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Brill
Abstract
This special issue of Islamic Africa brings together new critical perspectives on the
status of Islamic Family Law, commonly referred to as sharīʿa, within four African
countries – Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique and Senegal – each reflecting distinctive
gendered cultural, colonial and postcolonial realities. The introduction provides a
general overview of the state of the art on Islamic family law in Africa and highlights
the significant thematic focus of each contribution and the new areas for further
inquiry that the volume opens. These topics and questions include among others:
(a) the ways in which European colonialism and contemporary democratization
processes have opened spaces for religious pluralism, thereby shaping the articulation
of Muslim personal law within different African postcolonial state judicial systems;
(b) how Islamic judicial practices, institutions, and authorities such as malamai and/
or Kadhis engage themselves with the secular state and/or are constrained by both
the state and by the legal pluralism encountered within both Muslim majority and
minority African countries; (c) the gendered implications of the hierarchical relation
between Kadhi Courts and a national High Court; (d) the benefits and/or shortcomings
of harmonizing Islamic Family Law; (e) what is to be learnt from women choosing
to settle marital disputes and divorce within and/or outside the “legal protective
space” afforded by the state judicial system and its inclusion of Islamic Family Law;
(f) the role of human agency in influencing the administration of Islamic family law
and/or interpreting the law; how judicial systems that are shaped by European and Islamic patriarchal systems confronted by the resilience of indigenous matrilineal
Customary Law within contemporary African societies; and (g) the compatibility
between the various articulation of African Islamic family laws with universal human
rights and individual freedom. Ultimately, this special issue of Islamic Africa offers an
insightful reflection on how Islamic Family Law plays an important role in democratic
constitution-making or testing processes.
Description
Research Article
Keywords
Africa, Sharīʿa, human agency, patriarchy, legal pluralism, gendered citizenship