Conference urges revision of Islamic jurisprudence
(The Jakarta Post) – Muslim scholars and women’s rights activists have called for a review of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), saying the outdated legal system marginalizes women.
The executive director of the International Center for Islam and Pluralism (ICIP) Syafi’i Anwar said fiqh tends to be patriarchal and the laws derived from its philosophies, such as the marriage law, rarely benefit women.
“This patriarchal fiqh is linked with positioning women so they lack the necessary autonomy to determine their own rights,” he told a Regional Conference on Advancing Gender Equality and Women’s Rights in Muslim Societies in Jakarta.
Syafi’i said the existing fiqh structure was formulated during the medieval era when men had legislative authority and superiority over women.
A rethink of the fiqh system is not out of the question, he said.
“Fiqh is an individual interpretation of the Koran and sunnah [ways of the prophet], and therefore the outcomes are likely to change,” he said.
Syafi’i said that in Indonesia, sharia bylaws resulting from fiqh tend to be exploited by regional leaders with vested interests.
“These Islamic regulations have taken their fair share of victims in Aceh, Bulukumba (South Sulawesi), Tangerang (Banten) and other cities,” he said.
“The good news is that currently the number of leaders using sharia-based bylaws for their own personal reasons has declined significantly.”
ICIP deputy director Syafiq Hasyim said the patriarchal nature of the figh legal structure could be traced back to the fact the laws were drafted by an exclusively male ulema board.
“Since the 1980s, Indonesian ulema and scholars have sought to develop what they call an Indonesian fiqh,” he said.
However, the subsequent fiqh still had its roots in Arabic influences, he said.
Prominent Muslim scholar Siti Musdah Mulia criticized the Compilation of Islamic Law, a series of rules derived from figh which impact on marriage, inheritance and charitable foundations, affecting Muslims nationwide.
“The compilation has to be analyzed critically for several reasons,” she said at the same conference. “For instance, research findings suggest that the laws present real problems for regions wishing to implement sharia laws, as they are usually ill-prepared for their
impact.”
Musdah said the threat of sanctions from the Religious Affairs Ministry for those thought to be violating the Compilation of Islamic Law was another reason for the revision of the figh legal system.
Recently, the ministry applied sanctions to those failing to register their marriages with the ministry, a decision that came with mixed reactions as many couples undergo Islamic marriages without registering them officially [nikah siri].
“The grouping of these laws should be compared with the family laws of other Muslim states such as Tunisia, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq and Syria. These Muslim countries have repeatedly amended and reformed their family laws,” Musdah said.
Tunisia, for example, had banned polygamy.
