Sexual Violation in Islamic Law
Substance, Evidence, and Procedure

Centered on legal discourses of Islam's first six centuries, this book analyzes juristic writings on the topic of rape.

Hina Azam (Author)

9781107476066, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 27 July 2017

284 pages
23 x 15.3 x 1.8 cm, 0.43 kg

'Hina Azam takes on contemporary practices of Islamic law that work against rape victims through a revisiting of late antique and medieval legal discourses. Her meticulous approach yields ample material for rethinking some of the more injurious aspects of current legal interpretations and sounds a compelling call for gender justice grounded in the Islamic legal tradition. An exemplary work of engaged scholarship.' Judith Tucker, Georgetown University, Washington DC

This book provides a detailed analysis of Islamic juristic writings on the topic of rape and argues that classical Islamic jurisprudence contained nuanced, substantially divergent doctrines of sexual violation as a punishable crime. The work centers on legal discourses of the first six centuries of Islam, the period during which these discourses reached their classical forms, and chronicles the juristic conflict over whether or not to provide monetary compensation to victims. Along with tracing the emergence and development of this conflict over time, Hina Azam explains evidentiary ramifications of each of the two competing positions, which are examined through debates between the H?anafi? and Ma?liki? schools of law. This study examines several critical themes in Islamic law, such as the relationship between sexuality and property, the tension between divine rights and personal rights in sex crimes, and justifications of victim's rights afforded by the two competing doctrines.

Introduction
1. Sexual violation in the Late Antique Near East
2. Tracing rape in early Islamic law
3. Rape as a property crime - the Ma?liki? approach
4. Rape as a moral transgression - the H?anafi? approach
5. Proving rape in H?anafi? law - substance, evidence, procedure
6. Proving rape in Ma?liki? law - evidence, procedure, penalty
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Islamic law [LAFS], Islam [HRH], Middle Eastern history [HBJF1]