Throughout the last thirty-five years, numerous actors have joined in a concerted effort to advance women’s rights throughout the world. The drafting and implementation of multilateral international treaties such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights1
ICCPR), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights2 (ICESCR), and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women3 (CEDAW) demonstrate this international effort. Intense debates over women’s rights attest
to the volatility of this issue. Moreover, in many countries, women’s rights supporters are challenging male privilege and patriarchy in a meaningful way for the first time. While women’s rights supporters have made many advances toward securing the legal recognition of women’s rights, much work remains.4 Women’s rights supporters view the status of women in Islamic states with special concern.5 Of course, women face discrimination in all parts of the world, not just Islamic states.6
Still, the perception of especially harsh discrimination in Islamic states is persistent. This perception partially stems from the fact that a
majority of Islamic states adhere to Shari’a,7a legal system that many critics find incompatible with women’s rights.8
In practice, many Islamic states have legalsystems containing multiple sources of legal authority.9 Nonetheless, Shari’a remains a very important source of legal authority, especially in relation to women’s rights. Islamic states that rely on a mostly secular legal system often maintain family law under Shari’a, and family law contains many of the legal regulations that can restrict the rights of women.10
Leaders within Islamic states are reluctant to place family law under a secular legal framework.11 This reluctance significantly affects women’s rights. Islamic family law governs legal issues such as marriage, divorce, child custody, and inheritance.12 These legal issues deeply affect the daily lives of women, since they order social relations and define the rights and duties of women with
respect to fundamental social and familial practices.13 This reluctance also suggests that Islamic society is most resistant to legal reform that places women’s rights outside of Shari’a. Finally, this reluctance demonstrates that, just as in male-dominated secular states, male-dominated Islamic states retain legal practices that order the lives of women, not always as overtly sexist practices,
but often through subtle, nuanced forms of subjugation. This article discusses women’s rights primarily in Morocco, as the social,
political, and legal diversity within Islamic states renders transnational legal arguments tenuous. Given this article’s focus on Morocco, recent reforms changes to the Mudawana (Morocco’s Code of Personal Status) are of great interest. The 2004 Mudawana reforms marked an important moment in the advancement of women’s rights in an Islamic state.14 Nonetheless, questions regarding the effectiveness of these reforms remain unanswered. This article will address whether the Mudawana reforms have led to the legal and social change that women’s rights supporters hoped for, and whether women’s rights reformers can or should attempt to replicate this model of reform in other Islamic states. This article also discusses several strategies for advancing the legal recognition of women’s rights within Islamic states, again using Morocco as a case study. These strategies include applying international law, secular reform, the legislative process, reinterpreting the Qur’an and the hadith, 15 exercisingijtihad, 16 and contesting the development of Shari’a. This article then outlines a cautious strategy for advancing women’s rights in Islamic states. Finally, this article concludes that women’s rights are compatible with Shari’a, provided the right social and political conditions exist. Part I discusses women’s rights in Morocco, providing a brief contextualization of women within Morocco and then discussing the historic 2004 Mudawana reforms. Part II discusses the role of Moroccan women in legal reform efforts, particularly as active participants in Morocco’s civil society. That Part also discusses the contested image of Muslim women and how this image influences social and political debate. Part III discusses several strategies for advancing the legal recognition of women’s rights, assessing the strengths, weaknesses, and likely implementation of each approach. Part IV suggests a workable strategy for advancing women’s rights in Islamic states: first discussing failed reform strategies and then proposing a modest strategy that may succeed.