Basic Freedoms in a Fractured Legal Culture: Egypt and the Case of Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd

The modernization of law in the Arab world, which began in the nineteenth century, has created a dichotomy between the European-based laws in the constitutional, commercial and criminal law fields and the Islamic and other religious laws which continue to apply to matters of personal status and dome...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Middle East journal 1998-07, Vol.52 (3), p.402-414
Main Author: Sfeir, George N.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abu Zeid, Nasr Hamid
Appellate courts
Attorneys
Constitutional law
Constitutions
Criminal law
Divorce
Domestic relations
Equality
Exegesis & hermeneutics
Freedoms
Heresy
Islam
Islamic law
Law
Litigation
Marriage
Muslims
Petitions
Religion
Religious conversion
Religious freedom
Religious laws
Secularism
Sharia
State court decisions
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Summary:The modernization of law in the Arab world, which began in the nineteenth century, has created a dichotomy between the European-based laws in the constitutional, commercial and criminal law fields and the Islamic and other religious laws which continue to apply to matters of personal status and domestic relations. Certain individual rights and freedoms guaranteed by constitutions have been subverted by limitations on the freedom of belief, impediments to marriage, and lack of gender equality, in the religious laws. The detrimental impact of these fundamental contradictions in the same legal system are illustrated by the case in Egypt of Professor Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd, who was accused of heresy and ordered to separate from his wife on the grounds that Islamic rules of domestic relations do not permit a Muslim woman to be married to an apostate from Islam.
ISSN:0026-3141
1940-3461