Seminar / Workshop
Islamic Family Law and Justice for Muslim Women
Sisters in Islam organised a Regional Workshop on Islamic Family Law and Justice for Muslim Women in Kuala Lumpur from June 8 to June 10, 2001. The workshop focused on substantive areas of discrimination against women in the codified provisions as well as the implementation of Islamic Family Law legislations, highlighted best practices and put forward strategies for reform. Experiences were drawn mainly from four Asean countries i.e. Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines. There was also input from experiences in Egypt, Jordan, Iran, Morocco and Pakistan. The participants at the workshop included Syariah (Islamic law) lawyers and policy-makers, as well as activists, from the four Asean countries and also from Egypt, Iran, Pakistan and the USA.
Islam, Reproductive Health and Women's Rights (Available in SIS Resource Centre only)
The rights of Muslim women to attain a high standard of sexual and reproductive health and to make their own decisions regarding marriage, motherhood, contraception, abortion and sexuality free of coercion, discrimination and violence are articulated in the basic goals or principles of Shari'ah. Serious discussions on these rights, however are still lacking and rarely have problems been analysed within the context of the local situation. This book comprises papers presented at a regional workshop on Islam, Reproductive Health and Women's Rights organised by Sisters in Islam in 1998, reproduced in full to provide reference materials on an area in which minimal written material and documentation is available globally.
Shari'a Law & the Modern Nation State
How should an Islamic state be run?
How can we today, as modern people committed to both our religious heritage and to a vision of progress for its inheritors, interpret the essentials of the Medinan model?
How are we to understand and realise the Qur'anic ideals of equality, justice and political sovereignty of the umma?
These questions have been the focus of serious and searching concern to many contemporary Muslims. In 1992 we organised a symposium on "The Modern Nation State and Islam" in Kuala Lumpur to address those questions. This book was the outcome of the symposium, but it is not simply a record of the proceedings. It is also evidence of the continuing relevance to contemporary Malaysia of the issues that were debated at the symposium.
Hudud in Malaysia: The Issues at Stake
What are the possibilities and consequences of implementing the Kelantan Syariah Criminal Bill (II)?
Although the Kelantan Syariah Criminal Bill (II) is now an Enactment, its enforcement remains only a possibility for as long as its implementation continues to be a bone of contention between the State and Federal Government, thus offering some space for further debate on the viability of enacting the hudud. This book, therefore remains current as the voice if an alternative opinion. However, its currency does not deny it the possibility of being relevant whatever the eventual turn of events may be.
"...we have found aspects of the Kelantan Syariah Enactment to run counter to the spirit and intent of the Qur'an. Take rape, or instance. In trying to establish this, a woman must produce four male Muslim eyewitnesses to the act without which she can be accused of adultery or fornication. Given that this is the absolute precondition for any woman to seek redress for such heinous crime, it would seem that the laws cannot protect women because rape, as we know, is never committed in the open (Parts One and Four explore this in great detail). For this reason, we are adamant that no matter how well-intentioned the Enactment appears to be, it can have adverse if not unforseen and unintended effects for Muslim women, specifically, and for society as a whole."
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