Reclaiming Adl and Ihsan in Muslim Marriage: Between Ethics and Law

This research project (2018-ongoing) brings together scholars from different universities in the world to investigate ethical and legal frameworks for new conceptions of Muslim marriage that foreground a relationship of partnership of equals. The project is led by Musawah, a network of researchers and activists working towards building new research-based knowledge that informs gender-sensitive reform of contemporary Muslim family laws and mainstream religious discourses. The project is funded by Luce Foundation, USA. The first phase of the research focused on textual, historical, and legal inquiries into the Quran, Sunnah, Islamic legal theory and ethics, pre-modern and modern legal norms on Muslim marriages. The outcome is a volume of book chapters authored by the participating scholars and co-edited by Ziba Mir-Hosseini, Mulki Al-Sharmani, Jana Rumminger, and Sarah Marsso titled 'Justice and Beauty in Muslim Marriage: Towards Egalitarian Ethics and Law', OneWorld, 2022. The second phase of the project which is to start in June 2023 is a two year multi-sited ethnographic research in five countries (Egypt, Somaliland, Uganda, Indonesia, Pakistan) on initiatives to reform marriage laws, norms,and practices. Mulki Al-Sharmani will be the principal investigator leading the research.