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Female Citizenship in the Middle East: Comparing family law reform in Morocco, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon

Female Citizenship in the Middle East: Comparing family law reform in Morocco, Egypt, Syria and... This article explores the relationship between type of court system, parliamentary reform, and expanded female citizenship in four Arab states between 1990 and 2010. I argue that female citizens have acquired wider civil rights through parliament in relatively homogenous states with unitary court systems than in multireligious states with dual court systems. In Egypt and Morocco, unitary courts curbed clerical judicial authority over family law and weakened the resilience of conservative religious authorities. In these states, renewed pressures for reform after 1990 yielded strengthened female civil rights. In Syria and Lebanon, dual courts safeguard the judicial autonomy of clerics and enable them to resist pressures for family law reform more forcefully. In these states, little changed because the interests of political and religious authorities converge in ways that bolster group-based citizenship and constrain the civil rights of female citizens. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Middle East Law and Governance Brill

Female Citizenship in the Middle East: Comparing family law reform in Morocco, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon

Middle East Law and Governance , Volume 5 (3): 280 – Jan 1, 2013

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References (6)

Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© 2013 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
Subject
Articles
ISSN
1876-3367
eISSN
1876-3375
DOI
10.1163/18763375-00503003
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

This article explores the relationship between type of court system, parliamentary reform, and expanded female citizenship in four Arab states between 1990 and 2010. I argue that female citizens have acquired wider civil rights through parliament in relatively homogenous states with unitary court systems than in multireligious states with dual court systems. In Egypt and Morocco, unitary courts curbed clerical judicial authority over family law and weakened the resilience of conservative religious authorities. In these states, renewed pressures for reform after 1990 yielded strengthened female civil rights. In Syria and Lebanon, dual courts safeguard the judicial autonomy of clerics and enable them to resist pressures for family law reform more forcefully. In these states, little changed because the interests of political and religious authorities converge in ways that bolster group-based citizenship and constrain the civil rights of female citizens.

Journal

Middle East Law and GovernanceBrill

Published: Jan 1, 2013

Keywords: comparative politics; citizenship; religion; family law; reform; Middle East; women

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