Liberal Rights versus Islamic Law? The Construction of a Binary in Malaysian Politics

Moustafa, Tamir

doi:10.1111/lasr.12045

Cited by 38 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 31 publications

(36 reference statements)

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“…The more general point here is threefold. Malaysia boasts a vibrant civil society (Moustafa ; Weiss ); some of its key players advocate tirelessly for the expansion of Muslim women's rights (and pluralism regarding ethno‐racial and other diversity), while others are strongly opposed to their efforts; and media coverage of either side conduces toward views of the proverbial glass of women's rights under Islamic family law as half empty rather than half full.…”

Section: Are Women Getting (More) Justice)?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Much of this information is also available through the Internet, particularly on websites sponsored by the sharia judiciary and federal‐, state‐, and district‐level departments of Islamic religion . Suffice it to add that most Malaysians, men and women alike, have ready access to the Internet through their smartphones, iPads, and laptops, or the devices of their relatives, and that Malaysia has “one of the highest Internet‐penetration rates globally, and the highest of any Muslim‐majority country” (Moustafa :787).…”

Section: Are Women Getting (More) Justice)?mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Are Women Getting (More) Justice? Malaysia's Sharia Courts in Ethnographic and Historical Perspective

Peletz¹

2018

Law Soc Rev

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Religious law is commonly understood as deeply conservative and unfriendly to women, even when it is reform oriented and "this-worldly." This essay challenges that understanding. It does so by engaging the practice and lived entailments of Islamic family law and gender pluralism in Malaysia, based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted since the late 1970s. My research reveals that sharia courts are more timely and flexible in responding to women's claims than in decades past, and that these courts are more inclined to punish husbands who transgress sharia family law bearing on women. In addition, women nowadays have far more access to resources for negotiating marriage, its dissolution, and the aftermath. This is not to say that women and men experience marriage, divorce, or the sharia juridical field as social equals; they do not. But this situation is changing in ways that benefit women as long as they embrace increasingly salient and restrictive codes of obedience and heteronormativity. More broadly, the essay problematizes tensions and oppositions between Islamic law and women's rights that are the subject of considerable scholarly debate and contributes to our understanding of the complex entanglements of religion and law.[A ] history of family law, written from an anthropological perspective, is a history of narrative strategies engaged in by the state to influence the life course of its nationals. These maneuvers ultimately aim to fix the meaning of kin relations essential to the constitution of citizens as subjects, meaning that the citizens themselves should preferably desire to I would like to thank Monika Lindbekk, Tamir Moustafa, Dominik Müller, Arzoo Osanloo, Jeffrey Sachs, Patricia Sloane-White, Amanda Whiting, anonymous reviewers, and LSR editors for helpful comments on earlier versions of this essay.

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Section: Are Women Getting (More) Justice)?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Are Women Getting (More) Justice)?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Are Women Getting (More) Justice? Malaysia's Sharia Courts in Ethnographic and Historical Perspective

Peletz¹

2018

Law Soc Rev

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“…A lead attorney in many of the Article 121 (1A) cases, Haniff Khatri Abdulla, was frank about this strategy as a means to expand the purview of the shariah courts and the place of Islam in the legal system more generally . Equally important, once cases became politically salient, they provided opportunities for activists outside of the courts to mobilize (Moustafa ). Beginning in 2004, Article 121 (1A) cases were covered more intensively than any other issue.…”

Section: The Judicialization Of Religion: Litigating the Meaning Of Amentioning

confidence: 99%

The Judicialization of Religion

Moustafa

2018

Law Soc Rev

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Throughout the second half of the twentieth century, one Muslim-majority country after another adopted constitutional provisions meant to incorporate Islam into the legal order. In what is now a familiar pattern, leaders sought to harness the legitimating power of Islamic symbolism. But rather than shore up state legitimacy, these provisions opened new avenues of contestation. In countries where judicial institutions are robust, religion of the state clauses have helped to catalyze a "judicialization of religion," wherein courts were made to authorize an "official" religion and/or render judgment on the appropriate place for religion in the political order. This study theorizes one aspect of the judicialization of religion through the illustrative case study of Malaysia. The study examines how shifting political context provided opportunities for activist lawyers to advance sweeping new interpretations of Malaysia's Religion of the Federation clause and, with it, a new vision for state and society.

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“…Political activists embraced a rights-versus-rites binary construction and fostered this (mis)understanding. These activists recognized that although legal battles are fought in the court of law, more important ideological struggles are won or lost in the court of public opinion (Moustafa 2013b). Marc Galanter suggests that "a single judicial action may radiate different messages to different audiences " (1983: 126).…”

Section: Liberal Rights Versus Religion In the Court Of Public Opinionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Constituting Religion

Moustafa

2018

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Most Muslim-majority countries have legal systems that enshrine both Islam and liberal rights. While not necessarily at odds, these dual commitments nonetheless provide legal and symbolic resources for activists to advance contending visions for their states and societies. Using the case study of Malaysia, Constituting Religion examines how these legal arrangements enable litigation and feed the construction of a "rights-versus-rites binary" in law, politics, and the popular imagination. By drawing on extensive primary source material and tracing controversial cases from the court of law to the court of public opinion, this study theorizes the "judicialization of religion" and examines the radiating effects of courts on popular legal and religious consciousness. The book documents how legal institutions catalyze ideological struggles that stand to redefine the nation and its politics. Probing the links between legal pluralism, social movements, secularism, and political Islamism, Constituting Religion sheds new light on the confluence of law, religion, politics, and society. CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN LAW AND SOCIETYFounded in 1997, Cambridge Studies in Law and Society is a hub for leading scholarship in socio-legal studies. Located at the intersection of law, the humanities, and the social sciences, it publishes empirically innovative and theoretically sophisticated work on law's manifestations in everyday life: from discourses to practices, and from institutions to cultures. The series editors have longstanding expertise in the interdisciplinary study of law, and welcome contributions that place legal phenomena in national, comparative, or international perspective. Series authors come from a range of disciplines, including anthropology, history, law, literature, political science, and sociology. Series EditorsMark Fathi Massoud, University of California, Santa Cruz Jens Meierhenrich, London School of Economics and Political Science Rachel E. Stern, University of California, Berkeley A list of books in the series can be found at the back of this book.

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Liberal Rights versus Islamic Law? The Construction of a Binary in Malaysian Politics

Cited by 38 publications

References 31 publications

Are Women Getting (More) Justice? Malaysia's Sharia Courts in Ethnographic and Historical Perspective

Are Women Getting (More) Justice? Malaysia's Sharia Courts in Ethnographic and Historical Perspective

The Judicialization of Religion

Constituting Religion

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