Roundtable :: Tunisian Inheritance Law Reform
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Katarzyna Sidło
(Center for Social and Economic Research) organized an online roundtable on Tunisian president Beji Caid Essebsi's 2017 proposal to amend inheritance laws. She introduces the Roundtable by noting that, under the country’s current Personal Status Code – passed in 1956 – Tunisian citizens may not “allocate their inheritance freely and must follow” the inheritance divisions elaborated by Muslims jurists based on the Qurʾān (4:11-14) and
sunna
(reports of the prophetic example). The proposed amendment, if passed by parliament, will allow Tunisians choice: equal shares of inheritance between male and female heirs would become the default rule, from which those wishing to follow traditional Islamic legal rulings could opt out. In her own analysis for the proposed amendment, Sidło examines the issue with
an economic lens
.
The common argument defending the traditional rules and upholding this type of legal gender discrimination in Tunisia is an interpretation of a Qurʾānic verse stipulating that men spend money to support women (Qurʾān 4:34) and thus require more inheritance money. Sidło disagrees, underscoring the contemporary realities of a large female labor force and wages in the MENA region.
Mohammad Fadel
(University of Toronto)
takes a pragmatic approach
that helps explain why this proposal has raised so much controversy: "While the new law, if implemented, may not make a substantial tangible difference in people’s lives – especially given the ease with which ordinary Tunisians can continue to adhere to the previous inheritance law, regardless of the final form of the legislation – it does raise thorny theoretical questions about the nature of the Tunisian state, and the meaning of Islamic law in the modern world."
Request access
to the full symposium to read and respond.
Image credit: Nawaat
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Country Profile on Tunisia
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The SHARIAsource Portal’s Country Profiles aim to facilitate research for Islamic law and comparative law scholars by detailing the history, role, and source of Islamic and other state laws in each country. The Tunisian Country Profile provides sources on the larger context of the Tunisian legal system, along with
expert analyses
on the religion-state divide in the MENA region. See the Tunisia
Country Profile
(in the Country Profiles Special
Collection).
Image credit: AliExpress
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Spotlight :: Gender and Inheritance
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SHARIAsource houses a number of primary sources and expert analysis on laws concerning gender and inheritance in the Muslim world, outside of Tunisia. A search of laws on gender and inheritance shows that each manifests in legal structures and proceedings differently. For some examples, see Pakistan's 2006
Protection of Women Act
,
various
court
cases
from Indonesia, and an earlier symposium presenting perspectives from Chinese Muslim legal scholars on
female clerics
.
Image credit: Our World in Data
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Program in Islamic (PIL) Law News
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Digital Islamic Law Workshop.
PIL has
served as host to
a series of workshops
this spring that introduced
digital tools and methods available
for the study of Islamic law and history to
researchers
in these fields.
Jeremy Guillette
, Digital Scholarship Facilitator of Harvard University
, leads the workshops
.
Digital Islamic Law Lab
, co-convened by Visiting Fellow
Mariam Sheibani
and SHARIAsource Deputy Editor
Sharon Tai
, is a
monthly
series of active
lab session
s
that provide an opportunity for participants and students to apply what they learned in the
Digital Islamic Law Workshop
. Sessions
this spring
focused on building databases, mapping tools, network analysis, and TRACE, a textual analysis tool for mapping historical and contemporary Islamic laws.
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Features on the SHARIAsource Portal and
Blog
Scholarship Roundup ::
This month’s features of recent Islamic law scholarship include
Mohammad Fadel
's
chapter
in
Islam and Applied Ethics
exploring the ethical principles that inform Islamic law in connection with finance.
Islamic Law Scholars' Roundup
:: PIL Visiting Fellow
Mariam Sheibani
has been
named
a 2019 Hurst Fellow!
Global Events: Islamic Legal Studies
Contact and Convergence: An Interdisciplinary Conference in Islamic Studies (10-11 May 2019 | New York, NY).
Panels include new museological approaches to Islamic art, Muslim identity of Islamic scholars, and digital humanities (featuring SHARIAsource Deputy Editor
Sharon Tai
).
Details
.
Opportunities: Jobs, Fellowships, CFPs
Call for Applications :: Summer School on Philology & Manuscripts from the Muslim World (20-30 Aug 2019 | Leiden, Netherlands).
This summer school is for graduate (MA and PhD) students and researchers who have an interest in handwritten materials, editing, and the tradition of editing in the Muslim world. It offers theoretical lectures as well as hands-on practice with samples from the world-famous collections of the Leiden University Library. Please submit letter of motivation and CV to lucis@hum.leidenuniv.nl by
Jun 17
.
Details
.
Call for Applications :: College of the Holy Cross: Visiting Faculty Position, Middle East and North African History.
This position will teach three undergraduate courses during fall 2019 and three during spring 2020, including introductory surveys and thematic courses on the history of the Middle East and Ottoman Empire. Please submit cover letter, CV, teaching statement, graduate transcripts, and two letters of recommendation through https://apply.interfolio.com/62147. Rolling deadline.
Details
.
Call for Applications :: Los Angeles County Museum of Art: Assistant Curator, Islamic Art.
The museum contains over 2,000 works of art from across the Islamic world. The Assistant Curator will be responsible for exhibition-related projects and working with other departments. Qualifications include: recent PhD or advanced ABD in the history of Islamic art, museum experience and/or a demonstrated enthusiasm for working with objects, and knowledge of Arabic and/or Ottoman Turkish. Please send cover letter, CV, writing sample, and list of three references to amec@lacma.org by
May 12
.
Details
.
Call for Applications: Oklahoma State University: Postdoctoral Researcher, Medieval Middle Eastern History.
This position will help develop an online reference tool for the medieval Middle East. Specific duties include advanced data collection, contributing to editorial review and design decisions, historical research, and presentations/lectures. PhD and reading ability in at least two of the following languages required: Arabic, Armenian, Coptic, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Persian, or Syriac. Please submit cover letter, CV, writing sample, and two letters of recommendation through http://apply.interfolio.com/62569 by
May 17
.
Details
.
Call for Applications :: University of Bonn: Fellowships for Editing Texts in Islamic Intellectual History.
With the support of the Alexander von Humboldt Kolleg of the Islamicate Intellectual History of the Later Middle and Early Modern Periods, scholars are invited to submit a proposal for the critical edition and/or translation into English of a key text of this period—either one of the unpublished parts of Ṣadr al-Sharīʿa’s (d. 747/1347)
Taʿdīl al-ʿulūm
, or another text freely chosen by the applicant. Please submit CV, proposal (maximum five pages), and three references to fellowships@avh-islamicate.uni-bonn.de by noon on
May 17
. Fellowship includes 2,650 euros/month plus travel to/from Germany, and typically begins in Oct.
Details
.
Call for Papers :: Ordering the Anthropocene: Law & Environment in the Indian Ocean World (4-5 Oct 2019 | Philadelphia, PA).
The purpose of the workshop is to bring together senior and junior scholars of law and/or environment who are working in the newly-vibrant field of Indian Ocean history, and to generate a methodological conversation between legal historians and historians of environment and science anchored on the category of time and how differing notions shape practices of evidence selection, gathering, and testimony in the court and laboratory. Interested applicants should submit a 300-word abstract and short CV to Debjani Bhattacharyya (db893@drexel.edu) and Laurie Wood (lmwood@fsu.edu) by
May 15
.
Details
.
Call for Papers :: Words Laying Down the Law: Translating Arabic Legal Discourse (7-8 Oct 2019 | London, UK).
The Governance Programme at the Aga Khan University Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations invites papers for a two-day conference on translations of legal discourse in Arabic-speaking contexts. What is the impact of translation on the diffusion of legal concepts? Does the translation of legal terminology modify the perception of the corresponding legal phenomena in observable and applied ways? How are words translated from legal discourse into everyday discourse, and does translation happen in the other direction? Our goal is to set up a framework for exploring the effects of translation on how law is applied and understood in Arabic and/or by Arabic speakers. Please send abstracts of 500 words to ismc.governance@aku.edu by
May 31
.
Details
.
Call for Papers :: Women and Gender Studies in the Middle East (Mar 2021 | Beirut, Lebanon).
The Association for Middle East Women’s Studies (AMEWS) is inviting submissions for an international conference. A variety of topics are welcome, including politics, economics, history, sexualities, culture, arts, and digital humanities. Please email abstracts (250 words) to angie.abdelmonem@asu.edu by
Oct 30
.
Details
.
Share & Sign Up for News on Islamic Law
Do you have an upcoming event, recent publication, or conference on Islamic law? To include it in our Portal and consideration of a feature, send details to
pil@law.harvard.edu
. Sign up for general announcements by emailing
pil@law.harvard.edu
with "Sign up for announcements" in the subject line.
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