“Domestic Violence and Shari’a’: A Comparative Study of Muslim Societies in the Middle East, Africa and Asia”

The central question of this study concerns the relationship between domestic violence and shari’a. This relationship is of critical importance because shari’a provides both the legal framework for administering family relations and a religio-cultural framework for social norms and values in Muslim societies. This study seeks to provide an analytical framework and a comparative assessment of domestic violence in Muslim societies in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. The approach is socio-legal, probing the functions and uses of religious and other bodies of law, and tracing struggles over the rights of women in the context of domestic relations. This study was designed with three main aims: 1) to map the problem of domestic violence in Muslim societies in the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa and Asia; 2) to analyse and compare how states deal with this problem; and 3) to analyse and compare variations in interpretations and applications of shari’a in regard to intra-family violence. The conclusion reached is that due to the importance of the state and the failure of so many states to protect and ensure the rights of its citizens, struggles for women’s rights can be seen a part of a broader struggle against authoritarianism, not a rejection of religion or culture. Many rights activists throughout the three regions are striving to cultivate and clarify this distinction.