Photo of Supreme Court of Pakistan from Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Pakistan’s Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Act (XX of 2017) represents a significant step towards increasing female participation within the legal sphere. With specific provisions on female representation in court-mandated mediation and ADR centers, this Act moves Pakistan towards a more inclusive and equitable legal…
Constituting Religion: Islam, Liberal Rights, and the Malaysian StateTamir Moustafa The following is an excerpt from Tamir Moustafa’s Constituting Religion: Islam, Liberal Rights, and the Malaysian State (Cambridge University Press, August 2018). This book is available to read via open access. Over half of all Muslim-majority countries have constitutions that proclaim Islam the religion of…
Photo by Jr Korpa on Unsplash. Introduction From its establishment in 1928 until the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood developed from a small religious study group into the most influential Islamist movement in the world. After coming to political power in 2012 during Egypt’s brief democratic transition, the group was ousted…
“Italian Parliament Building” by Marco Verch (CC BY 2.0). In a constitutional democracy, the right to freedom of religion implies that everyone can freely profess, practise, and propagate their faith in various forms, alone or in community with others, in public or private, in worship, teaching, and observance. With this in mind, the political-legal task…
“Towers of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) after fifth extension” by Laurent Verdier / Wikimedia (CC0 1.0). This article is part of our “Clothed in Religion: Law and Religious Attire/Garb” series.If you’d like to check out other articles in this series, click here. There are two major judicial systems currently operating within the…
Aso Rock in Abujo, Nigeria by Mike Fisher (CC BY-SA 2.0). “War is the greatest plague that afflicts humanity, it destroys states, it destroys families, and even religion…Any scourge is preferable to it,” observed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Many people in the world have used religion to instigate violent conflicts but these religious roots…
This article is part of our “Clothed in Religion: Law and Religious Attire/Garb” series.If you’d like to check out other articles in this series, click here. The issue of religious attire is like a strong wind that suddenly arose some 20 years ago and blew across Europe for a long time. Now that the force of…
“Together” Almas Shaikh Medium: Water and Acrylic Colors on a 300 GSM PaperDate: March 2022Artist’s Note: I painted this in early March while awaiting the verdict in the Hijab ban case we had argued before the Karnataka High Court. The court upheld the ban and the same was later challenged in the Supreme Court. This…
Picture by Keira Burton on Pexels. This article is part of our “Clothed in Religion: Law and Religious Attire/Garb” series.If you’d like to check out other articles in this series, click here. Religious attire is typically seen as a form of religious expression, which is protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. By far…
The Women’s Mosque of America: Authority & Community in US IslamTazeen Ali The following is a modified excerpt from Tazeen Ali’s The Women’s Mosque of America: Authority & Community in US Islam (2022), out now from New York University Press. The Women’s Mosque of America (WMA) is a multi-racial women-only mosque in Los Angeles that…