Women’s Rights in the Triangle of State, Law, and Religion: A Comparison of Egypt and India

22 Pages Posted: 10 Jan 2012 Last revised: 11 Jan 2012

See all articles by Yuksel Sezgin

Yuksel Sezgin

Syracuse University - Department of Political Science

Date Written: January 9, 2012

Abstract

The main premise of this Essay is that personal status laws, whether based on Muslim, Jewish, or Hindu tradition, are men-made (implying that no females were involved in this process), socio-political constructions that have come invariably to discriminate against women and deny them equal rights in familial relations. However, women do not silently acquiesce in violation of their rights and liberties by male-dominated religious norms and institutions. On the contrary, women-led hermeneutic communities all over the world are spearheading a silent but steady revolution that redefines women’s role as rights-bearing and equal individuals in familial and public space. In doing so, women’s groups contest the scriptural monopoly of state-sanctioned religious institutions, reinterpret religious laws, and reinvent the tradition by vernacularizing international human rights and womens’ discourses. Against this background, Part I of this Essay demonstrates the implications of personal status laws on the rights and freedoms of women by looking at the Egyptian and Indian personal status systems. Part II of this Essay traces women-led reform movements emerging in the last two decades in these two countries and demonstrates how Egyptian and Indian women have claimed the rights and freedoms that current systems have denied them by forming reinterpretive hermeneutic communities.

Keywords: India, Egypt, Islamic Law, Shari'a, personal status, family law, women's rights

Suggested Citation

Sezgin, Yuksel, Women’s Rights in the Triangle of State, Law, and Religion: A Comparison of Egypt and India (January 9, 2012). Emory International Law Review, Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 1007-1028, 2011 , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1982266

Yuksel Sezgin (Contact Author)

Syracuse University - Department of Political Science ( email )

100 Eggers Hall
Syracuse, NY 13244-0001
United States
3154434431 (Phone)

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