Conversion marriages, which always involved litigants who had exchanged their religious self-designations, perpetually mixed up personal law codes and created…
Conversion marriages: Rethinking categories of religion in colonial India’s courtrooms
family law
A postcolonial genealogy of secularism and sexuality
A public lecture recently delivered by Saba Mahmood at the London School of Economics entitled "Secularism, Religion and Sexuality: A Postcolonial Genealogy"…
Women’s Rights, Muslim Family Law, and the Politics of Consent
Lila Abu-Lughod and Anumpama Rao---editors of Women’s Rights, Muslim Family Law, and the Politics of Consent, a special issue of…
Egypt’s revolution and the new feminism
The youth-driven Revolution of 2011, with its call for freedom and justice, is inscribing a new feminism, with a fresh…
Shari’a, Family, and Democracy
Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im, M. Christian Green, and John Witte, Jr., principal investigators of an SSRC-funded project "Shari'a, Family, and Democracy…
An Islamic case for a secular state
If the state is going to enforce any principle from Islamic sources, according to Abdullahi An-Na‘im, then it should implement…
Islam and authority
In his new book, Abdullahi an-Na`im argues that Muslims need a secular state to live their religious lives. Alongside his…