on "Contesting Justice"

“…[Souaiaia’s] ideas are illuminating … his examination of Qur’anic laws, particularly those concerning women, should resonate well in the international community. Moreover, he offers moderate Muslims a refreshing new approach to the sort of interpretations that have traditionally stifled women’s advancement.” — Religion

“Contesting Justice may be appreciated from two points of view. It is, on the one hand, an advocacy piece, an original contribution to Islamic thought … But Justice also includes at least two chapters which, although part of the author’s impassioned argument for a new view of Islamic law, also contain material that reveals much about the workings of the classical tradition … [Souaiaia] is surely an intellectual to watch on the North American Muslim scene.” —  Studies in Religion

“Contesting Justice is in many ways a groundbreaking and pioneering study that links discourses pertaining to the nature, origins, development and the scope of Islamic law and practices with the concept of justice as it relates to the legal and economic status of women with special attention to the Islamic laws of polygamy and inheritance … Souaiaia’s book is an extremely important study and a major contribution to the literature of Islamic law, legal theory, Islamic hermeneutics, as well as politics, women and gender studies and is recommended highly to all those interested in these disciplines.” — Middle East Studies Online Journal

“In Contesting Justice, Ahmed Souaiaia offers an innovative examination of the link between social justice and the Islamic interpretive and legal tradition … the author’s efforts at combining a theoretical approach and practical methodology are commendable and very welcome efforts for scholars, students, and practitioners of Islamic law and human rights.” — Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies

“There are numerous books published in the U.S. about Islamic law and women in the Muslim world. Many of those books are by people with no language skills, and little familiarity with original sources. Souaiaia has deep familiarity with the original sources in Arabic and Persian. He knows his sources firsthand, and does not treat the subject superficially … this book contains many important and original ideas about Islamic law and the interpretation and classification of texts.” — CHOICE

“This is the first study I have seen in which the author combines expert knowledge of highly technical aspects of shari`ah, Islamic hermeneutics, human rights, and social justice. Souaiaia speaks with authority to a specialist Islamic scholar, while making his argument and analysis clear and accessible to a general reader. This is an informative and engaging book.” — Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na‘im, Emory University School of Law

Islamic law and women in the Muslim world

There are numerous books published in the US about Islamic law and women in the Muslim world. Many of those books are by people with no language skills, and little familiarity with original sources. Souaiaia (religious studies, Univ. of Iowa) has deep familiarity with the original sources in Arabic and Persian. He knows his sources firsthand, and does not treat the subject superficially.

...

... this book should be of interest to scholars and specialists, although it may be beyond the comprehension of laypeople... Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate, graduate, and research collections.

No permission to publish the entire review, but you may be able to read more on this link.

Reviewer: A. AbuKhalil California State University, Stanislaus

Source: Choice

Copyright American Library Association.

Prof. McCloud: "Souaiaia has also developed an approach of investigation that has a known integrity"

Book Review: Read the Full Review

CONTESTING JUSTICE: WOMEN, ISLAM, LAW, AND SOCIETY. By Ahmed E. Souaiaia. State University of New York Press 2008. Pp. 195. $20.95. ISBN: 0-791-47398-8.

Some studies on Muslim women have assumed that the liberation of Muslim women from the oppressions of the Qur’an and Muslim men could only emerge by forcing Muslim governments to change their laws.

Other studies strongly advocate for women’s participation in governmental institutions and civic life where their voices on interpretations of texts including the Qur’an will cause changes in the distribution of justice and fairness regarding women. Still others assert that most, if not all, of women’s disenfranchisement is a result of male domination which must be attacked. Other researchers on Muslim women, especially in the West, have discovered that the more identifiable (i.e. western) the actions of Muslim women, the greater their potential for liberation. The variations on these arguments are too numerous to name here. What is evident is that there is a contradiction between a central text, the Qur’an, that calls for social justice and traditional cultural practices that largely obscure that justice and fairness in Muslim societies, communities and families irrespective of geographical location. Equally obvious is the fact that comparing the lives of Muslim women with lives of other women is not a path for a solution.

Rationales for the circumstances of Muslim women have alternatively been placed at the feet of male interpretation of the Qur’an, patriarchy, colonialism, the threats of Western modernity and illiteracy.

Analyses that base any of their positions on this list of blameworthy opponents however, have not produced a viable path. Yet, inside an unsettling green and yellow set of covers, Professor Ahmed Souaiaia presents one of the most compelling set of arguments to date. In Contesting Justice: Women, Islam, Law, and Society, he seeks to reexamine the arguments listed above and provide more challenging analyses. Focusing on justice and fairness, Souaiaia proposes that researchers cease to limit their attention to singular solutions such as legal reform or radical cultural reform; rather, he argues that they turn their intellectual resources to the creation and protection of civil society with a rebuilding of educational institutions that support and nurture critical thinking by men and women.

Read the Full Review
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Shaikh's Review of Contesting Justice

Contesting Justice: Women, Islam, Law and Society; Reviewed by Khanum Shaikh, University of California, Los Angeles

In Contesting Justice, Ahmed Souaiaia offers an innovative examination of the link between social justice and the Islamic interpretive and legal tradition. The author’s main argument is premised on the need to maintain a clear-cut distinction between what are explicitly stated legal proofs within Qur’anic texts, and those that are implicit and ambiguous and have been given meaning through human interpretation…

…All in all, the author’s efforts at combining a theoretical approach and practical methodology are commendable and very welcome efforts for scholars, students, and practitioners of Islamic law and human rights. At times Souaiaia’s efforts to navigate multiple terrains may compromise the clarity of his message as the reader works her way through claims that oscillate between the generalized and the specific, the discipline-bound and the interdisciplinary, modern discourses on human and women’s rights and fiqh-based rulings on specific issues, etc. Overall, however, this work may serve as a useful and practical tool for academics and practitioners alike… read the rest of the review


Excerpt from the Review written for Journal of Middle East Women's Studies

HUSSIN's Review of Contesting Justice

Contesting Justice, as reviewed by Iza Hussin, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Studies of Islamic law for a nonspecialist readership are major undertakings for several reasons: they require clear explication of the hermeneutics and contexts of Islamic legal theory, and of the specific adaptations made within Muslim societies in history; they must avoid both the normative assumptions of "Western" theories of law and the in-speak of Islamic jurisprudence; they need to strike a balance between giving credence to the beliefs of Muslims and evaluating their political and social strategies. For all these reasons, Souaiaia's project is daring and ambitious; its strengths, and the challenges it faces, derive from the scope of the undertaking… Read the rest of the review

Excerpt from the Review written for Law & Society Review