As Egypt is currently preparing to regulate personal status laws, with controversial proposals restricting a woman’s right to divorce, Saudi Arabia recently took a revolutionizing step in new law amendments, taking an unexpected yet important direction away from other Muslim majority countries. While there still remains many setbacks and future challenges, the new law amendments reveal a new face; a new sign of hope and opportunities to continue fighting to achieve social justice, and a message to other countries that persist in creating tensions between Islamic laws and civil laws and refuse to respond to modern changes. What is unfolding today in the Muslim world is a debate which addresses whose interpretations of Islamic law should be written into law and whose views matter, and how political authorities – old or new – can largely affect the application of religious laws. Last month, proposals of a new draft law included extending the duration of the legal proceedings of the khul’ – which allows a woman to independently divorce her husband in Islam – to more than a year. On top of that, it also gives the father and the grandfather…
‘Heads of Family Are Mother and Father’: Why New Saudi Law Amendments Are Important
December 6, 2019
