Family Law

By: Dr. Zainab Alwani Although there may be hurt feelings on both sides, the [Quran] advises compassion in decision-making, encouraging the couple to remember anything good that they shared. As Salma Abugideiri and [Zainab Alwani] explain in What Islam says about domestic violence (Herndon: FAITH, 2008): “The psychological… View Article

By: Raja El Habti “Mahr is the obligatory gift given by the husband to the wife at the time of marriage. It is an expression of the man’s love, respect, and serious commitment to his wife to be and to married life. It is the right of the woman, and hers alone. She may do

By: Mohammad Fadel This Essay takes a critical look at a doctrine that is often cited – by Muslims and non-Muslims alike – as indicative of Islamic law’s systematic gender discrimination in favor of men and against women: the legal requirement that a Muslim woman, prior to her marriage, must gain the permission of her

By: Abed Awad, Esq. Our country needs a legal remedy to protect women within our secular legal system. The U.S. Supreme Court anchors its separation of church and state jurispru­dence in elaborate balancing tests. To best serve our clients, lawyers must balance the secular, legal remedies with our clients’ religious requirements.

By: Julie Macfarlane The primary objective of the study was to document, using a qualitative, interview-based approach, how North American Muslim communities manage divorce. Specifically, the study explores Islamic approaches to marriage, reconciliation, and divorce and the meaning and significance they retain for Muslims in North America. Men and women who had experienced religious divorce

By: John Mansfield “At the Karamah program a year ago, I gave a talk with the same title–“Marriage in Pakistan – Divorce in Maryland”- about the case – Aleem v. Aleem – just then handed down by Maryland’s highest court, the Maryland Court of Appeals. I hope to approach this same case with more information and new insights into

By: John Mansfield “Aleem v. Aleem is a recent case from Maryland’s highest court, the Maryland Court of Appeals. Husband and wife were married in Pakistan in a ceremony that complied with the Pakistan Muslim Family Laws Ordinance. After three days, the marriage was registered. At the time of the marriage the husband was twenty-nine

“This paper is a collection of detailed comments on the proposed CEDAW General Recommendation on the Economic Consequences of Marriage and its Dissolution (The Concept Note) currently being circulated by the CEDAW Committee at the United Nations. KARAMAH hopes that its comments will facilitate a thorough critique by Muslim delegations of The Concept Note which is

By: Azizah al-Hibri, Esq. “To understand the fullness of the Islamic position on family planning, we need to look more carefully at the total picture. Its departure point, of course, is to encourage the life principle. Hence, the Prophet’s exhortation to multiply and the Qur’anic prohibition of infanticide, a wide-spread pre-Islamic practice involving born children which was

By: Azizah al-Hibri, Esq. The nature of the Islamic marriage contract (kitab) has been largely misunderstood by Muslims and non-Muslims alike. On the Muslim side, the problem has been one of over-secularization of the law of contract, a trend that led to a trivialization of the marriage contract, and hence of the commitment of some