Reclaiming Religious and Legal Authority
An Ethnography of the Women's Shari'a Courts in India
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2228562 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sophie Schrago (Institute for Women's Policy Research, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 47 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 499-523 |
| Publication date | 2022-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0097-9740 • E-ISSN: 1545-6943 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/716647 |
| OpenAlex | W4200405526 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 11 |
In 2013, the Indian Muslim Women’s Movement (BMMA) established India’s first women’s Shariʿa court with the objective of improving Muslim women’s lives by reclaiming Islamic tradition for the purpose of emancipation. In an attempt to reform the Muslim Personal Law, BMMA has trained women to become Shari’a law judges and to work toward reshaping legal and cultural norms within the community. Through an ethnography of BMMA women’s Shariʿa courts, this article examines the ways Muslim women activists simultaneously seek to carve out space for the creation of gender-just laws within the Islamic framework and challenge the notion of Islam as an impediment to the realization of women’s rights. It further discusses the way these women’s Shariʿa courts create new modes of governmentality beyond the fracture between the religious and the secular, thus offering insights into the interplay of secular ideals of gender justice and Islam
Economic Justice · Emancipation · Ethnography · Governmentality · Islam · Political science · Politics · Sharia · Sociology · African Sexualities and LGBTQ+ Issues · Anthropology · Gender Studies · Gender, Security, and Conflict · History · Islamic Studies and History · Law
Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture
The Location of Culture
Politics of Piety
The “women's court” in India
Separate and Unequal
The Uniform Civil Code
Re-thinking the Promotion of Women's Rights through Islam in India
Rethinking the Interplay of Feminism and Secularism in a Neo-Secular Age
Gender, Politics, and Islam
Judges of Normality
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1.33 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2026 (4) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |