Women's Rights and Religious Law

Domestic and International Perspectives

Fareda Banda, Lisa Fishbayn Joffe, Fareda Banda, Lisa Fishbayn Joffe

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781317517658
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Civil Rights in Law
• Index: Law

The three Abrahamic faiths have dominated religious conversations for millennia but the relations between state and religion are in a constant state of flux. This relationship may be configured in a number of ways. Religious norms may be enforced by the state as part of a regime of personal law or, conversely, religious norms may be formally relegated to the private sphere but can be brought into the legal realm through the private acts of individuals. Enhanced recognition of religious tribunals or religious doctrines by civil courts may create a hybrid of these two models.

One of the major issues in the reconciliation of changing civic ideals with religious tenets is gender equality, and this is an ongoing challenge in both domestic and international affairs. Examining this conflict within the context of a range of issues including marriage and divorce, violence against women and children, and women's political participation, this collection brings together a discussion of the Abrahamic religions to examine the role of religion in the struggle for women's equality around the world. The book encompasses both theory and practical examples of how law can be used to negotiate between claims for gender equality and the right to religion. It engages with international and regional human rights norms and also national considerations within countries.

This book will be of great relevance to scholars and policy makers with an interest in law and religion, gender studies and human rights law.

Law and Religion

The practice of religion by individuals and groups, the rise of religious diversity, and the fear of religious extremism, raise profound questions for the interaction between law and religion in society. The regulatory systems involved, the religious laws of secular government (national and international) and the religious laws of faith communities, are valuable tools for our understanding of the dynamics of mutual accommodation and the analysis and resolution of issues in such areas as: religious freedom; discrimination; the autonomy of religious organisations; doctrine, worship and religious symbols; the property and finances of religion; religion, education and public institutions; and religion, marriage and children. In this series, scholars at the forefront of law and religion contribute to the debates in this area. The books in the series are analytical with a key target audience of scholars and practitioners, including lawyers, religious leaders, and others with an interest in this rapidly developing discipline.

Series Editor: Professor Norman Doe, Director of the Centre for Law and Religion, Cardiff University, UK

Series Board:

Carmen Asiaín, Professor, University of Montevideo

Paul Babie, Associate Professor and Associate Dean, Adelaide Law School

Pieter Coertzen, Chairperson, Unit for the Study of Law and Religion, University of Stellenbosch

Alison Mawhinney, Reader, Bangor University

Michael John Perry, Senior Fellow, Center for the Study of Law and Religion, Emory University

Titles in this series include:

Religious Expression in the Workplace and the Contested Role of Law

Andrew Hambler

Religion in the British Constitution

Liberty and Limitation

Javier Oliva and Helen Hall

Forthcoming titles in this series include:

Constitutionalism, Democracy and Religious Freedom

To be Fully Human

Hans-Martien ten Napel

Women's Rights and Religious Law

Domestic and International Perspectives

Edited by

Fareda Banda and Lisa Fishbayn Joffe

First published 2016

by Routledge

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and by Routledge

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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

© 2016 selection and editorial matter, Fareda Banda and Lisa Fishbayn Joffe; individual chapters, the contributors

The right of Fareda Banda and Lisa Fishbayn Joffe to be identified as the author of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data

Women’s rights and religious law : domestic and international perspectives / Edited by Fareda Banda and Lisa Fishbayn Joffe.

pages cm. – (Law and religion)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-138-85597-7 (hbk) – ISBN 978-1-315-72000-5 (ebk)

1. Women–Legal status, laws, etc. 2. Women and religion. 3. Religious law and legislation. 4. Women’s rights. I. Banda, Fareda, editor. II. Joffe, Lisa Fishbayn, editor.

K644.W67 2016

342.08′78–dc23 2015030060

ISBN: 978-1-138-85597-7 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-72000-5 (ebk)

DOI: 10.4324/9781315720005

Typeset in Galliard

by Out of House Publishing

Contents

• List of contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction FAREDA BANDA AND LISA FISHBAYN JOFFE
• PART I Gendered rites: gendered rights?
  • 1 Culture, religion and women’s international human rights FRANCES RADAY
  • 2 Marriage, religion and gender equality JOHN EEKELAAR
  • 3 Gender, religion and human rights in Africa FAREDA BANDA
  • 4 Implications of the Vatican commitment to complementarity for the equality of the sexes in public life MARY ANNE CASE
• PART II Negotiating gender and religion in state law
  • 5 Between strict constructionist sharīʼah and protecting young girls in contemporary Northern Nigeria: the case of child marriage (ijbār) SARAH ELTANTAWI
  • 6 Family law reform, spousal relations, and the “intentions of Islamic law” CELENE IBRAHIM
  • 7 The woes of WoW: the Women of the Wall as a religious social movement and as a metaphor PNINA LAHAV
  • 8 Religious coercion and violence against women: the case of Beit Shemesh SIMA ZALCBERG BLOCK
• PART III Religious divorce in civil courts
  • 9 The impact of “foreign law” bans on the struggle for women’s equality under Jewish law in the United States of America LISA FISHBAYN JOFFE
  • 10 Systemic misunderstanding between rabbinical courts and civil courts: the perspective of an American rabbinical court judge RABBI ARYEH KLAPPER
  • 11 Socio-legal gendered remedies to get refusal: top down, bottom up YAEL MACHTINGER
  • 12 Challenging stereotypes: gender-sensitive imams and the resolution of family disputes in Montreal ANNE SARIS
• Select bibliography
• Index

List of contributors

Fareda Banda was born and educated in Zimbabwe. She has two law degrees from the University of Zimbabwe and a doctorate from the University of Oxford. She is a Professor of Law at SOAS, University of London where she teaches family law, human rights of women and law and society in Africa. Her publications include Women, Law and Human Rights: An African Perspective (Hart, 2005) and a major report for the UN OHCHR entitled Project on a Mechanism to Address Laws that Discriminate against Women (2008). Her favourite activity is reading children’s books with her two daughters, Azera and Shamiso.

Mary Anne Case is the Arnold I. Shure Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School. Her scholarship to date has concentrated on the regulation of sex, gender, and sexuality, and on the early history of feminism. Among her previous positions are Class of 1966 Research Professor at the University of Virginia, Visiting Professor at New York University, Bosch Public Policy Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin for the spring of 2004, Crane Fellow in Law and Public Affairs at Prin...