Islamic and Jewish Religious Feminists Tackle Islamic and Jewish Oral Law

Maintenance and Rebellion of Wives

Authors

  • Ruth Roded Hebrew University of Jerusalem

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/cis.31497

Keywords:

Islamic feminism, Jewish religious feminism, oral law, Mishna, Talmud, Hadith, Fiqh

Abstract

Beginning in the early 1970s, Jewish and Muslim feminists, tackled “oral law”—Mishna and Talmud, in Judaism, and the parallel Hadith and Fiqh in Islam, and several analogous methodologies were devised. A parallel case study of maintenance and rebellion of wives —mezonoteha, moredet al ba'ala; nafaqa al-mar'a and nushuz—in classical Jewish and Islamic oral law demonstrates similarities in content and discourse. Differences between the two, however, were found in the application of oral law to daily life, as reflected in “responsa”—piskei halacha and fatwas. In modern times, as the state became more involved in regulating maintenance and disobedience, and Jewish law was backed for the first time in history by a state, state policy and implementation were influenced by the political system and socioeconomic circumstances of the country. Despite their similar origin in oral law, maintenance and rebellion have divergent relevance to modern Jews and Muslims.

References

Abed Rabho, Laila. 2008. “The Discourse of Muslim Women in the Shari'a Courts of Jerusalem and Taibe.” Unpublished PhD thesis, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Abu-Odeh, Lama. “Law: Modern Family Law, 1800–Present: Arab States.” Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures. Leiden: Brill.

Abou-Ramadan, Moussa. 2006. “Islamic legal reform: Shari'a Court of Appeals and maintenance for Muslim wives in Israel.” Hawwa 4: 29–75. https://doi.org/10.1163/156920806777504599

Abu Dawud Sulayman ibn al-Ash'ath al-Azdi as-Sijistani. 1988. Sunan Abi Dawud. Al-Kahi-ra: Dar al-Hadith.

Adler, Rachel. 1998. Engendering Judaism: An Inclusive Theology and Ethics. Philadelphia, PA: The Jewish Publication Society.

———. 2008. Feminizm Yehudi: Teologya ve-Musar. Translated by R. Blum. Tel Aviv: Miskal.

Ali, Kecia. 2010. Marriage and Slavery in Early Islam. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

'Asaliyya, Ziyad Tawfiq. 1992. Al-Nafaqat fi al-ahwal al-shakhsiyya. Umm al-Fahim: Makta¬bat al-Nur.

El-Azhary Sonbol, Amira. 2009. “The genesis of family law: How Shari‘ah, custom and colonial laws influenced the development of personal status codes.” In WANTED Equality and Justice in the Muslim Family, edited by Zainah Anwar, 179–208. Malaysia: Sisters in Islam.

Bakhtiar, Lale, trans. 2009. The Sublime Quran. Chicago, IL: Kazi Publications.

Biale, Rachel. 1984. Women and Jewish Law. New York: Schocken Books.

al-Bukhari, Muhammad ibn Ismail. 1973–1976. The Translation of the Meanings of Sahih al- Bukhari: Arabic-English. Translated by M. Muhsin Khan. 2nd revised edition. Al- Medina al-Munawwara: Islamic University. http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah

Code de la Famille 3 Fevrier 2004 La Moudawana Bulletin Officiel Maroc.

Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly. 2002. “Women and the Minyan” 55:1.

http://rabbinicalassembly.org/sites/default/files/public/halakhah/teshuvot/19912000/oh_55_1_2002.pdf

El-Or, Tamar. 1998. BaPesach HaBa: Nashim veOryanut baZionut HaDatit Tel Aviv: Am Oved.

———. 2002. Next Year I Will Know More: Literacy and Identity of Young Orthodox Women in Israel. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press.

Eisenman, Robert. 1976. Islamic Law in Palestine and Israel. Leiden: E.J. Brill. “Feinstein, Moses” Encyclopaedia Judaica. 2nd edition. http://www.responsa.co.il/default.aspx?action=toggleLogin.

Fonrobert, Charlotte. 2000. Menstrual Purity: Rabbinic and Christian Reconstructions of Biblical Gender. Redwood City, CA: Stanford University Press.

French Civil Code, Decreed 17th March, 1803. Promulgated 24th of the same Month. “Chapter VI Of the respective Rights and Duties of Married Persons” http://www.napoleonseries.org/research/government/code/book1/c_title05. html#chapter1.

Gerber, Haim. 1980. “Social and economic position of women in an Ottoman city: Bursa.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 12: 231–244. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020743800026295

Goitein, S. D. and A. Ben Shemesh. 1957. Muslim law in Israel. Jerusalem: Mif'al Hashichpul and Gvilim Publishing Co. Ltd.

Goitein, Shlomo Dov. 1978. A Mediterranean Society. Berkeley: University of California.

Goldziher, Ignaz. 1971. Muslim Studies. Translated by C. R. Barber and S. M. Stem, edited by S. M. Stern. 2 vols. Chicago, IL: Aldine Publishing Company.

Greenberg, Blu. 1981. On Women and Judaism: A View from Tradition. Philadelphia, PA: Jewish Publication Society of America.

Grossman, Avraham. 2001. Hasidot umordot: nashim yehudiyot be'eropa beyeme habenayim. Jerusalem: Merkaz Zalman Shazar.

Hammer, Juliane. 2012. American Muslim Women, Religious Authority, and Activism: More Than a Prayer. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Hassan, Riffat. 1985.“Made from Adam’s rib: The woman’s creation question.” Al-Mushir Theological Journal of the Christian Study Centre 27: 124 ff.

Hauptman, Judith. 1998. Rereading the Rabbis: A Woman’s Voice. Boulder, CO: Westview.

Hawting, G. R. 1989. “The role of the Quran and the ‘hadith’ in the legal controversy about the rights of a divorced woman during her ‘wating period’ (idda).” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. 52: 430–445. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X00034546

al-Hibri, Azizah. 1982. Women’s Studies International Forum 5: 135–243. https://doi.org/10.1016/0277-5395(82)90022-X

Hyman, Paula. 2014. “The feminist revolution.” Jewish Women’s Archive. http://jwa.org/feminism/_html/.

“Ibn Maymun.” Encyclopedie of Islam, 2nd ed. http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/ibn-maymu-nSIM_3293?s.num=0&s.f.s2_parent=s.f.book.encyclopaedia-of-islam-2&s.q=Ibn+Maymun.

Ibn Sa'd, Muhammad. 1980. Al-Tabaqat al-Kubra. Beirut: Dar Sadir.

Ilan, Tal. 1995. “A window into the public realm: Jewish women in the Second Temple Period.” A View into the Lives of Women in Jewish Societies, edited by Yael Atzmon, 47–61. Jerusalem: Zalman Shazar Center.

The Israel Woman’s Network, Shedulat HaNashim. 1984. http://www.iwn.org.il/.

Jennings, Ronald C. 1975. “Women in early seventeenth century Ottoman judicial records—the sharia court of Anatolian Kayseri.” Journal of Economic and Social History of the Orient 18: 51–114.

The Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance. 1997 http://jofa.org/.

The Jewish Publications Society. 1917. The Holy Scriptures. Philadelphia, PA: The Jewish Publications Society.

Kadri Pasha, Mohammed. 1914. Code of Mohammedan Personal Law According to the Hanafite School. Translated by Wasey Sterry and N. Abcarius. Getzville, NY: William S. Hein and Company.

Kaedan, Taghreed. 2010. “Datiot ve'Azmaiyot: Pniyot lepiskei halacha mimerkaz ha-ifta' bemichlelet al-qasimi.” Unpublished research paper, Hebrew University.

Karayanni, Michael Mousa. 2007. “The separate nature of the religious accommodations for the Palestinian-Arab minority in Israel.” Northwestern Journal of International Human Rights 5: 41–71. http://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/njihr/ vol5/iss1/2.

Al-Khassaf, Abu Bakr Ahmad. 1365 A. H. Kitab al-Nafaqat. Bombay: al-Dar al-Salafiyya.

Kirkpatrick, Elizabeth Kreitler. 1977. “Alimony and public income support: Fifteen countries.” Social Security Bulletin 40: 36–39.

Knesset, 1953. Law of Rabbinical courts jurisdiction (marriage and divorce), 5713–1953

https://www.knesset.gov.il/review/data/eng/law/kns2_rabbiniccourts_eng.pdf.

———. 1995. Family Court Law. https://www.knesset.gov.il/review/data/heb/law/kns13_familycourt.pdf.

Kolech. 1998. http://www.kolech.org.il/.

Labovitz, Gail. 2007. “The scholarly life—the laboring wife: Gender, Torah and the family economy in Rabbinic culture.” Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women’s Studies and Gender Issues 20: 8–48. https://doi.org/10.2979/NAS.2007.-.13.8

Lamdan, Ruth. 2000. A Separate People: Jewish Women in Palestine, Syria and Egypt in the Sixteenth Century. Leiden: Brill.

Landau, Melanie. 2012. Tradition and Equality in Jewish Marriage: Beyond the Sanctification of Subordination. London-New York: Continuum.

Layish, Aharon. 1975. Women and Islamic Law in a Non-Muslim State: A Study Based on the Decisions of the Shari'a Courts in Israel. New York: John Wiley / Jerusalem: Israeli Universities Press.

Maimonides. Mishne Torah. http://www.mechon-mamre.org/i/0.htm.

“Maimonides, Moses.” Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/browse/encyclopedia-of-jews-in-the-islamic-world.

Malik b. Anas, 1989. Al-Muwatta. Translated by Aisha Abdurrahman Bewley. London: Kegan Paul International.

al-Marghinani, Burhan al-Din Abi 'Ali b. Abi Bkr. 2000. Al-Hedaya: Sharh Bidaya al-Mubtadi. Al-Qahira: Dar al-Islam.

Marghinani, Burhanuddin Abi al Hasan Ali. 2008. The Hedaya: Commentary on the Islamic Laws. Translated by Charles Hamilton. New Delhi: Kitab Bhavan.

“Marghinani.” Encyclopedia of Islam. 2nd edition. http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2.

Marcus, Abraham. 1983. “Men, women and property, dealers in real estate in eighteenth-century Aleppo.” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 26: 137–163.

Meriwhether, Margaret L. 1999. The Kin Who Count: Family and Society in Ottoman Aleppo, 1770–1840. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Mernissi, Fatema. 1987 Le harem politique: Le prophe`te et les femmes. Paris: Albin Michel.

———. 1991a. Al-Har_im al-siy_as_i. Translated by A. Abbas. Damascus: Dar al Hassa.

———. 1991b. The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of Women’s Rights in Islam. Translated by M. J. Lakeland. New York: Addison-Wesley.

Mir-Hosseini, Ziba. 1993. Marriage on Trial: A Study of Islamic Family Law: Iran and Morocco Compared. London: I. B. Tauris.

Mir-Hosseini, Ziba, Mulki Al-Sharmani and Jana Rumminger. 2015. Men in Charge? Rethinking Authority in Muslim Legal Tradition. London: One World.

Mishna, Sotah, http://www.mechon-mamre.org/b/h/h35.htm.

Mishna, Kiddushin http://www.mechon-mamre.org/b/h/h37.htm.

Mishna, Nashim, Ketubot.

Bernard-Maugiron, Nathalie. 2010. Personal Status Laws in Egypt. Giza, Egypt: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ).

Pirkei Avot .http://www.daat.ac.il/daat/toshba/avot/tohen-2.htm.

Rabbinical Courts in Israel, Piskei Din. http://www.rbc.gov.il/Pages/PiskeDin.aspx.

Qadri Pasha. 1992 [1875]. Kitab al-Ahkam al-Shar'iyya fi al-Ahwal al-Shakhsiyya 'ala Madhab al-Imam Abi Hanifa al-Nu'man. In Al-Nafaqat fi al-ahwal al-shakhsiyya, edited by Ziyad Tawfiq 'Asaliyya. Umm al-Fahim: Maktabat al-Nur.

Qur'an. Translated by Marmaduke Pickthall. 1930. www.al-tafsir.com.

Rapoport, Yossef. 2005. Marriage, Money and Divorce in Medieval Islamic Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Reda, Nevin. 2005. “What would the Prophet do? The Islamic basis for female-led prayer.” Muslim WakeUp! March 10, 2005, http://www.muslimwakeup.com/main/archives/2005/03/002706print.php#_ftn19

The Responsa Project. http://www.responsa.co.il/.

Rispler-Chaim, Vardit. 1992. “Nushuz between Medieval and Contemporary Islamic Law: The Human Rights Aspect.” Arabica 39: 315–316.

Roded, Ruth. 1994. Women in Islamic Biographical Collections: From Ibn Sa'd to Who’s Who. Boulder, CO: Lynne Reinner.

———. 2012. “Islamic and Jewish religious feminism: Similarities, parallels and interactions.” Religion Compass, Intertwined Worlds 6: 1–13.

———. 2012b. “Human creation in the Hebrew Bible and the Qur'an—feminist exegesis.” Religion Compass, Intertwined Worlds 6: 1–10.

———. 2015. “Jewish and Islamic religious feminist exegesis of their sacred books: Adam, woman and gender.” Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women’s Studies and Gender Issues 29: 56–80. https://doi.org/10.2979/nashim.29.56

———. Forthcoming, “Modern gendered Islamic fatwa responsa on women’s issues.”

Safran, Nadav. 1958. “The abolition of the Shar’i Courts in Egypt.” The Muslim World 48: 20–28, 125–135. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1478-1913.1958.tb02561.x

Salime, Zakia. 2011. Between Feminism and Islam: Human Rights and Sharia Law in Morocco. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. https://doi.org/10.5749/minnesota/9780816651337.001.0001

Sayeed, Asma. 2009. “Gender and legal authority: An examination of early juristic opposition to women’s hadith transmission.” Islamic Law and Society 16: 115–150. https://doi.org/10.1163/156851909X461681

Shaham, Ron. 1997. Family and the Courts in Modern Egypt: A Study Based on Decisions by the Shari'a Courts, 1900–1955. Leiden: E.J. Brill.

Sharafeldin, Marwa. 2015. “Islamic law meets human rights: Reformulating Qiwamah and Wilayah for personal status law reform advocacy in Egypt.” In Men in Charge? Rethinking Authority in Muslim Legal Tradition, edited by Ziba Mir-Hosseini, Mulki Al-Sharmani and Jana Rumminher, 163–196. London: Oneworld.

Al-Sharmani, Mulki. 2009. “Egyptian family courts: a pathway of women’s empowerment?” Journal of Women of the Middle East and the Islamic World 7: 89–110. https://doi.org/10.1163/156920709x12511890014504

Shatzmiller, Maya. 1994. Labour in the Medieval Islamic World. Leiden: Brill.

Sisters in Islam. 1991. Are Muslim Men Allowed to Beat Their Wives? http://www.sistersinislam.org.my/.

Talmud Bavli. http://www.mechon-mamre.org/b/l/l44.htm.

Tillier, Mathieu. 2009. “Women before the Qadi under the Abbasids.” Islamic Law and Society 16: 280–301. https://doi.org/10.1163/092893809X12529358595648

Tucker, Judith E. 1985. Women in Nineteenth Century Egypt. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511583506

———. 1996 “Revisiting reform: Women and the Ottoman law of family rights, 1917.” The Arab Studies Journal 4: 4–17.

———. 1998. In the House of the Law: Gender and Islamic Law in Ottoman Syria and Palestine. Berkeley: California University Press.

Ukeles, Raquel. 2006. “Debating new religious roles for women in contemporary Islamic law.” Unpublished paper.

UNDP, Regional Bureau for Arab States. 2006. The Arab Human Development Report, 2005. Amman: National Press.

Wegner, Judith Romney. 1988. Chattel or Person? Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Welchman, Lynn. 2015. “Qiwamah and Wilayah as legal postulates in Muslim family laws.” In Men in Charge? Rethinking Authority in Muslim Legal Tradition, edited by Ziba Mir-Hosseini, Mulki Al-Sharmani and Jana Rumminher, 132–162. London: One-world.

Westreich, Avishalom. 2012. Talmud-Based Solutions to the Problem of the Agunah. Liverpool: Deborah Charles Publications.

Women Living Under Muslim Laws. http://www.wluml.org/search/apachesolr_search/nafaqa.

Women Living Under Muslim Laws. 2003. Knowing Our Rights: Women, Family, Laws and Customs in the Muslim world. London: Women Living Under Muslim Laws.

Published

2017-09-06

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Roded, R. (2017). Islamic and Jewish Religious Feminists Tackle Islamic and Jewish Oral Law: Maintenance and Rebellion of Wives. Comparative Islamic Studies, 11(1), 35-63. https://doi.org/10.1558/cis.31497