Asia (Geography) Archives

“The ethics of procedure: traffic laws, modern technology and the reconfiguration of Privacy in the Arabian Gulf” by Alexandre Caeiro

May 6, 2025Canopy ForumEssaysApril 2025, Asia (Geography), Caeiro, Alexandre, Ethics, Islam

Image by Paasikivi on Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0) The implementation of Islamic criminal law has been characterized as a paradox. Muslims are scripturally instructed to apply the Qur’anic punishments for “crimes against God” (murder, theft, slander, adultery). Nevertheless, prophetic practice, legal canons, and the evidentiary rules elaborated by Muslim jurists often appear designed to prevent…

“The Wolf in Sheep’s Skin: Promises and Realities of Religious Freedom in China” by Grace Gaffet

Mar 14, 2025Canopy ForumEssaysAsia (Geography), Gaffet, Grace, March 2025, Religious Freedom, Secularism

Photo of Kaifeng North Mosque by Windmemories (CC BY-SA 4.0) The following essay is reprinted and adapted on Canopy Forum in collaboration with the journal Derecho en Sociedad, a biannual electronic publication that is free and open access. Their issue 19(1) features full length articles in Spanish and English. Read Gaffet’s long-form essay on Religious Freedom in China here. See other…

“Defining a Muslim; The Case of Pakistan and its Ahmadis” by Yasser Latif Hamdani

Mar 12, 2025Canopy ForumEssaysAsia (Geography), Constitutional Law, Hamdani, Yasser Latif, Islam, March 2025

Main chamber of Badshahi Mosque by User:Amjad.m (CC BY-SA 3.0) On January 16th, 2025, the government of Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province, demolished a historic Ahmadi mosque in the city of Daska. This mosque was built by Zafrullah Khan (1893-1985), Pakistan’s first foreign minister and one of the founding fathers of the country. This is…

Gender, Russian Orthodoxy, and the Invention of “Traditional” Values by Regina Elsner

Oct 31, 2024Canopy ForumEssaysAsia (Geography), Christianity, Elsner, Regina, October 2024, Sex and Gender

Russian Orthodox Church, Rocklea, Russia by Bert Knot (CC 2.0) This article is part of our series on Transnational Christian Nationalism, and its impact on politics, the rule of law, and religious freedom. If you’d like to explore other articles in this series, click here. For many years, Russia has been known as one of the main…

“Gestational Surrogacy and Hindu Bioethics: The Karma of Genetics and the Genetics of Karma” by Deepak Sarma

Sep 13, 2024Canopy ForumSeriesAsia (Geography), Bioethics, Hinduism

Image by Mariya Popovich from Pixabay This article is part of our “Religious Perspectives on Assisted Reproduction and Surrogacy” series. If you’d like to explore other articles in this series, click here. While a great deal has already been written about cross-racial surrogacy and surrogacy in India, there are, however, no significant or credible studies concerning gestational surrogacy from…

“A Belated Book Review: Rabbi Dr. Emanuel Rackman, ‘Israel’s Emerging Constitution’ (1954) and Its Continued Relevance” by Michael J. Broyde

Apr 18, 2024Canopy ForumEssaysAsia (Geography), Broyde, Michael J., Constitutional Law, Judaism, Politics

Nuremburg Trials Protocols by David Shay (CC BY 3.0 DEED) Prologue Rabbi Dr. Emanuel Rackman (b. 1910, d. 2008) was a unique figure in the Orthodox Jewish community. Besides his well-known intellectual brilliance, he was involved with nearly every important Orthodox organization in America for many decades and then moved to Israel to be the…

“Islam, Women, and Genderization in Professions: The Case of Uzbekistan” by Rahimjon Abdugafurov

Apr 11, 2024Canopy ForumLiterature HighlightsAbdugafurov, Rahimjon, Asia (Geography), Human Rights / Civil Rights, Politics, Sex and Gender

Islam, Women, and Genderization in Professions: The Case of UzbekistanRahimjon Abdugafurov The following is an excerpt from Rahimjon Abdugafurov’s chapter titled, “Islam, Women, and Genderization in Professions: The Case of Uzbekistan” featured in The Political Economy of Education in Central Asia, an open access collection of essays on Central Asia. Reprinted here with permission from…

“Iran’s Political Agenda: Women’s Bodies at the Intersection of Religion and Law” by Faegheh Shirazi

Aug 4, 2023Canopy ForumEssaysAsia (Geography), August 2023, Human Rights / Civil Rights, Islam, Shirazi, Faegheh

A sign with “Woman, Life, Freedom” (Jin, Jiyan Azadi) in Central and Northern Kurdish by Pirehelokan (CC BY-SA 4.0). As a scholar in the field of Islamic studies and material culture since the early 1990s, I have continually read and written about veiling and the hijab in Muslim cultures. In Iran, the hijab has had…

“Chinese Persecution of the Uyghur: A Case of Genocide” by Ali Çaksu

Aug 3, 2023Canopy ForumEssaysAsia (Geography), August 2023, Caksu, Ali, Human Rights / Civil Rights, Islam

Demonstration for Uyghur rights in Berlin by Leonhard Lenz (CC0 1.0). Uyghurs are a Muslim Turkic people who have been living for a few millennia in East Turkistan or Uyghuristan, which was called Xinjiang (New Territories) in the Chinese language following Chinese invasion. The Uyghur nation has members of ethnic Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyzs, Tajiks, and…

“Religion, Law, and Governance in Premodern Hindu Political Theory” by John Nemec

Jul 25, 2023Canopy ForumEssaysAsia (Geography), Hinduism, Human Rights / Civil Rights, July 2023, Nemec, John

Prambanan Temple Complex in Yogyakarta Indonesia. Photo by CEphoto, Uwe Aranas. (CC BY-SA 3.0). Political theory in premodern South Asia settled on a single model of governance at a relatively early date: kingship. This was so in large part because those who defined and controlled the intellectual and religious institutions of the day, the Brahmins,…