Muslim family law

I entered the field of Muslim family law almost 'by accident'. My interest in transformations in Palestinian women's access to property pointed me to inheritance and marriage, especially the dower. So I spend a lot of time analyzing marriage contracts at the shari'a court, starting in the later 1980s, with a last visit in 2018. I am in particular interested how family law texts, registration practices at the shari'a court, and the narratives of women about their dower relate to each other.

My later work then focused on first, debates about family law in the Middle East, and then on religious-only marriages both in the Netherlands and in Palestine, that is I investigated how these marriages were problematized (esp by state actors), how those entering in such marriages evaluated them, and how problematization affected the lives of those entering into such marriages.

Publications:

Moors, Annelies, Rajnaara Akhtar and Rebecca Probyn, 2018, Special Issue Non-state registered marriages, Sociology of Islam 6, 3

Moors, Annelies, Rajnaara Akhtar and Rebecca Probyn, 2018, 'Introduction: Contextualizing Islamic religious-only Marriages', Sociology of Islam 6, 3: 263-273.

Moors, Annelies, Martijn de Koning and Vanessa Vroon-Najem, 2018, 'Concluding an ‘Illegal Islamic Marriage’ in the Netherlands: Controversy, Criminalization and Contestations', Sociology of Islam 6, 3: 274-296

Akhtar, Rajnaara, Rebecca Probyn, and Annelies Moors, 2018, Special Issue Informal Muslim Marriages: Regulations and Contestations, Oxford Journal of Law and Religion 7, 3.

Akhtar, Rajnaara, Rebecca Probyn, and Annelies Moors, 2018, 'Introduction: Informal Muslim Marriages: Regulations and Contestations, Oxford Journal of Law and Religion 7, 3: 367-375.

Moors, Annelies, 2018, ‘Adopting a face-veil, concluding an Islamic marriage: autonomy, agency, and liberal secular rule’, in Marie-Claire Foblets, Michele Graziadei and Alison Dundes Renteln eds., Personal Autonomy in Plural Societies. A principle and Its Paradoxes. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 127-140.

Moors, Annelies, 2014, Waarom vrouwen ‘islamitische huwelijken’ aangaan. Wetgeving, seksualiteit en islam in Nederland en daarbuiten. FORUM Verkenningen, 25 pp.

Moors, Annelies, 2013, ‘Unregistered Islamic marriages: Anxieties about sexuality and Islam’, in Maurits Berger (ed.), The Application of Sharia in the West. Leiden University Press, pp. 141-164.

Moors, Annelies, 2011, ‘Mahr meanings, dower dealings: Reflections from Palestine’ in Rubya Mehdi and Jorgen Nielsen, eds., Embedding Mahr in the European Legal System. Copenhagen: Djøf Publishers. Pp. 21-33.

Moors, Annelies, 2008, co-editor (with Baudouin Dupret, Barbara Drieskens) Narratives of Truth in Islamic Law. London: IB Taurus. 382 pp.

Moors, Annelies, 2008, ‘Registering a token dower: The multiple meanings of a legal practice’ in Baudouin Dupret, Barbara Drieskens and Annelies Moors, eds., Narratives of Truth in Islamic Law. London: IB Taurus, pp. 85-104.

Moors, Annelies, 2006, ‘Representing Family Law Debates in Palestine: Gender and the Politics of Presence’, in Birgit Meyer and Annelies Moors, eds., Religion, Media, and the Public Sphere. Indiana University Press, Pp 115-132.

Moors, Annelies, 2004, ‘Women, Gender, and Inheritance: Arab States’. Encyclopedia of Women in Islamic Countries, volume 2. Leiden: Brill. Pp. 299-302.

Moors, Annelies, 2003, guest editor, ‘Public Debates on Family Law Reform. Participants, Positions, and Styles of Argumentation in the 1990s’, special issue of Islamic Law and Society 10, 1.

Moors, Annelies, 2003, ‘Public Debates on Family Law Reform. Participants, Positions, and Styles of Argumentation in the 1990s’, Islamic Law and Society 10, 1: 1-11. 2003introils.pdf

Moors, Annelies, 1999, ‘Debating Islamic Family Law: Legal Texts and Social Practices’, in Marlee Meriwether and Judith Tucker, eds., The Social History of Women and Gender in the Modern Middle East. Boulder: Westview Press. Pp. 141-177. 1999 tuckermeriwether.pdf

Moors, Annelies, 1997, ‘Over vrouwen en bezit: juridische documenten en mondelinge verhalen’, in S.W.E. Rutten, red., Recht van de Islam 14, Maastricht: RIMO. Pp. 39-49.

Moors, Annelies, 1997, ‘Een aanzienlijke som geld of slechts een symbolisch bedrag’, Geld en goed. Jaarboek voor vrouwengeschiedenis 17: 99-114.

Moors, Annelies, 1996, ‘Gender Relations and Inheritance. Person, Power and Property’, in Deniz Kandiyoti, ed., Gendering the Middle East. Emerging Perspectives, London and New York: IB Taurus Publishers, pp. 69-84.

Moors, Annelies, 1995, Women, property and Islam. Palestinian experiences, 1920-1990. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Moors, Annelies, 1994, ‘Women and Dower Property in Twentieth-Century Palestine: The Case of Jabal Nablus’, Islamic Law and Society 1, 3: 301-331. 1994 women and dower.pdf