Families Across Borders | law, policy, news and views
“Free Will” and Forced Marriages in Pakistan, Afghanistan
Interesting piece in yesterday’s N.Y. Times by Meghan Davidson Ladly: “Love and Free Will Challenge Traditional Pakistani Family Ties” (NYT Sept. 5, 2012). Also on the subject of marriage, consent, and protection for young women, see the piece by Graham Bowley several weeks ago: “Wed and Trotured at 13, Afghan Girl Finds Rare Justice” (NY Times [...]
Religious Conversions for Marriage Considered in Pakistan
Controversy over several cases of Hindu women converting to Islam in order to marry Islamic men has reached the Pakistani Supreme Court, which resolved the cases by sequestering the women from their families and their husbands in a shelter for several weeks and then having a court registrar record their statements privately regarding their decisions to convert. [...]
Islamists and Moroccan Marriage Law
An article in the Washington Post discusses the controversy in Morocco sparked by the suicide last month of a teenager who was raped and then married off to the man who had raped her. The current law allows a rapist to avoid prosecution if he marries the vicitm.The story reports that although the current law sets the [...]
International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family
The December 2011 issue of the International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family is available online; articles include a very thought-provoking article by Peter Hayes on The Legality and Ethics of Independent Intercountry Adoption Under the Hague Convention, which argues against the movement to eliminate independent intercountry adoption under the 1993 Hague Adoption Convention. [...]
New Issue: International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family
Online access to the August 2011 issue of the International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family is available here. Articles include: Normann Witzleb, Marriage as the ‘Last Frontier’? Same-Sex Relationship Recognition in Australia; Maria Eriksson, Contact, Shared Parenting, and Violence: Children as Witnesses of Domestic Violence in Sweden; Ali Reda Bariklou, The Wife’s Right [...]
New Rule of Succession for British Royal Family
The rules have changed for Britain’s royal family, with the unanimous approval by the Commonwealth countries of changes to the Bill of Rights 1688; the Coronation Oath Act 1688; the Act of Settlement 1701; and the Royal Marriages Act 1772. The new law places daughters and sons on an equal footing with respect to inheriting [...]
Polygamy Surfaces as an Issue in Libya
Repeal of a Quaddafi-era law regulating polygamy – by requiring a first wife’s consent before a man took additional wives –has surfaced along with a prohibition on charging interest as part of the new interim government’s plans for a return to a more strongly shariah-based legal system in Libya. See Richard Spencer, Libya’s liberation: interim [...]
Resolution attacks genital cutting and other gender-based persecution
House Joint Resolution 12, currently pending in the U.S. Congress, denounces “the practices of female genital mutilation, domestic violence, `honor’ killings, acid burnings, dowry deaths, and other gender-based persecutions” and expresses the sense of Congress that “participation, protection, recognition, and equality of women is crucial to achieving a just, moral and peaceful society.” The [...]
Burqua Ban takes effect in France
After long debate, legislation went into effect today in France prohibiting individuals from wearing clothing intended to hide the face in places such as streets, markets, public transportation, government buildings and shops. Here’s U.S. coverage from the New York Times by Alan Cowell, and the Associated Press (in the Washington Post). For French perspectives, see the coverage inLe Monde (in English) [...]
New Issue: International Law, Policy and the Family
The April 2011 issue of International Law, Policy and the Family is available online here. The articles include: Lynn Welchman, A Husband’s Authority: Emerging Formulations In Muslim Family Laws; Maznah Mohamad, Malaysian Sharia Reforms in Flux: The Changeable National Character of Islamic Marriage; Jill Howieson, The Professional Culture of Australian Family Lawyers: Pathways to Constructive [...]
