Download Muslim women and marriage

AKC 8 General – Spring Term 2007 – Religion in the contemporary world: social scientific perspectives
05/03/07
AKC 8 – 05 MARCH 2007
MUSLIM WOMEN AND MARRIAGE
PROFESSOR MADAWI AL-RASHEED, DEPARTMENT OF THEOLOGY AND
RELIGIOUS STUDIES
This lecture is an exploration of the meaning of marriage in the Islamic tradition and the
practices of contemporary Muslims. It draws on anthropological literature on marriage in
specific Muslim countries in order to map the variety of practices and experiences.
The first part of the lecture is about definitions of marriage in the Islamic tradition. The second
part explores how contemporary Muslims experience marriage(s).
Part I: Marriage in Islam
1. Meaning of marriage (nikah): In Islam, marriage is a contract between two consenting adults.
The main function of marriage is to render sexual relations between a man and a women licit.
Marriage is also a religious obligation imbued with a host of ethical injunctions. Sexual contact
outside marriage is defined as zina (fornication) and is subject to punishment in many Muslim
societies. Celibacy is discouraged in the Islamic tradition.
2. Marriage ceremonies: as contract, marriage is enacted in a ceremony with religious symbolism
and rituals. This requires the presence of witnesses and the recitation of the first verse of the
Quran (fatiha). It also requires a dower (mahr) paid by the man to the woman.
3. Reciprocal rights and duties: women may refuse cohabitation before the dower is paid.
Women are expected to be maintained by their husbands. In return they expect to be looked after
and all their needs satisfied. Husbands choose the place of residence and expect obedience from
his wife. He can control her activities outside the house and he has the right to terminate
marriage.
4. Divorce (talaq: repudiation): in some Islamic interpretations this is the absolute and exclusive
right of men. A man needs no grounds for divorce and his pronouncement of the talaq formula
will result in the dissolution of the marital bond. Neither the consent nor the presence of the
women is necessary. Today, many Muslim societies try, through new legislation, to restrict the
right of men to divorce women, without a long legal procedure. While women can initiate
divorce, their ability remains restricted and subject to the interpretation of male Muslim judges.
If a woman asks for divorce, she may lose her right to maintenance by her ex-husband.
5. Polygamy: Islamic law allows a man to marry four wives. This is sometimes dependent on the
consent of the first wife but not necessarily conditional on it. Islam requires a man to treat his
wives equitably, if he has more than one. Polygamy is outlawed only in a limited number of
Muslim countries. However, economic considerations, coupled with the increasing education of
men and women, may contribute to the decline of polygamy.
6. Alternative marriages: In addition to the nikah mentioned above, some Muslim scholars have
made other types of cohabitation between a man and a women lawful. These include Mut’a
marriage (also known as sigeh), temporary marriage, which is lawful only among Shia Muslims.
Mut’a is a contract for temporary marriage (fixed duration) between a man and a woman, often
contracted in secrecy. Misyar marriage (made lawful by some Saudi religious scholars) is a
‘visiting marriage’ whereby a man has access to a woman without the financial and residential
responsibilities attached to traditional marriage. It does not have a temporary dimension and can
be contracted indefinitely.
Part II: Marriage in Contemporary Muslim Societies
1. Anthropological research on family life, marriage and divorce points to the diversity of
practices. Mir Hosseini shows that there is a relationship between Islamic family law and family
structures in two Muslim societies (Morocco and Iran). Islamic law is interpreted by men, who
promote a male bias in their judgements. Men relate to a body of legal rules in divine revelation
but this is codified and implemented by a judicial bureaucracy. The Sharia (Islamic law) is based
on a model of male dominance where marriage is defined as a civil contract. Sharia marriages
are founded on an asymmetry of rights and duties, sanctioned by a body of religious law and is
seen as divinely ordained. But Hosseini’s analysis of marital disputes reveals a matrifocal
alternative model of the family that persists in a system dominated by a patriarchal ideology. To
reach a divorce in Morocco, lower class women resort to courts in order to make maintenance
claims on their often absentee husbands. In contrast, in Iran, she found that there is a strong
patrifocal and patrilineal bias in family structures. This anthropological study concludes that
Islamic law sustains a uniform concept of the family, which is patrilineal, patrifocal and
patriarchal. However, Islamic law is neither the cause nor the cure for the subjugation of women
in Muslim society. Sharia cannot be divorced from the social context in which it operates. It is a
certain type of ideology that perpetuates a certain type of relations within the family by
restraining women’s sphere of action.
2. Alternative marriage practices in contemporary Muslim society: Haeri studied temporary
marriage in Iran, mut’a. This is a contract in which a man and an unmarried womean decide how
long they want to stay married to each other. Mut’a is an urban phenomenon in Iran and is
associated with pilgrimage to shrines and long distance trading centres. No witnesses are
required to enter into this contract. Its objective is sexual enjoyment while the objective of nikah
is procreation. It is common among women who are divorced or widowed. A woman can have
only one man at a time. After the expiry date of the contract, a woman is meant to observe an
abstinence period of three months before she can contract another mut’a marriage. If children are
born, then they are legitimate and should be recognised by the man. Although this marriage is
recognised by religious scholars as legitimate, society does not fully accept it. Mut’a marriage
remains controversial. Within the popular culture of Iran, this temporary marriage is considered
as a form of prostitution. This marriage, however, raised people’s awareness of the affordability
and attainability of sexuality.
In Muslim societies, marriage is not only a religious obligation, but is also a social practice
imbued with multiple meanings. The practice is regulated by Islamic law, yet social
considerations, kinship loyalties and economic networks are all intervening factors that
determine how men and women experience marriage.
Further reading
Mir Hosseini, Z. (1993) Marriage on Trial: A Study of Islamic Family Law London: I.B. Tauris
Haeri, S. (1989) Law of Desire: Temporary Marriage in Iran London: I.B. Tauris
Holy, L. (1989) Kinship, Honour and Solidarity: Cousin Marriage in the Middle East
Manchester: Manchester University Press
Al-Torki, S. (1986) Women in Saudi Arabia: Ideology and Behaviour among Elite Women New
York: Columbia University Press
Mahmood, S. (2005) Politics of Piety: the Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject Princeton:
Princeton University Press
Full details about the AKC course, including copies of the handouts, can be found on the AKC
website at: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/akc. Please join in the Discussion Board and leave your
comments. If you have any queries please contact the AKC Course Administrator on ext 2333 or
via email at [email protected]. Please note the AKC Exam is on Friday 23 March 2007 between
14.30 and 16.30.
EXAM REGISTRATION is now open. To register please reply to the email from the Dean’s
Office giving your full name and student ID number. The deadline of registration is 9 March
2007. Please see the Examination page of the AKC website for details, where there is a selection
of past papers.