News

On Tuesday, April 12, 2022 12:00-1:00PM US EST via Zoom, Professor Irene Schneider (Göttingen University) spoke about her new book, “Debating the Law, Creating Gender: Sharia and Lawmaking in Palestine”  (Brill, 2021). She examined how family law in Palestine, despite being a controversial topic publicly debated by representatives of the state, Sharia establishment, and civil society, does not exist. She determines why, by focusing on the conceptualization of gender and analyzing “law in the making” and the shifts in debates (2012–2018). In 2012, a ruling on khulʿ-divorce was issued by the Sharia Court and was well received by civil society, but when the debate shifted in 2018 to how to “harmonize” international law with Islamic standards, the process came to a standstill. These developments and the various power relations cannot be properly understood without taking into consideration the terminology used and redefined in these debates, which she addresses in her book and talk. Dr. Marwa Sharafeldin, visiting fellow with the Program on Law and Society in the Muslim World at Harvard Law School,served as discussant and the event was moderated by PIL Research Fellow, Dr. Hedayat Heikal.