Women, Property and Islam by Annelies Moors

Women, Property and Islam by Annelies Moors

According to Islamic law, women are entitled to inherit property, to receive a dower at marriage, and are in full control of their income. Through an anthropological study of Palestinian women on the West Bank, Annelies Moors demonstrates that this is not always the case in practice. In fact, their options vary greatly depending on whether they gain access to property through inheritance, through the dower or through paid labour. The narratives of women from different stratas of society indicate under what circumstances they claim property rights, and when they are prevented from doing so in order to gain other advantages. While essentially an ethnographic study, the author's use of court records demonstrates how historical changes have affected women's claims to property, focusing on the relation between local traditions, international politics and transnational labour migration.

"..this is a well-written, engaging study--useful to social scientists, Middle East scholars, and specialists in gender studies." Choice
"Engaging, convincing, and brilliantly crafted, Women, Property and Islam is one of the best scholarly books I have read in some time....The ten chapters of this book provide ample detail and a most useful level of specificity. They allow readers to appreciate the need for analytic caution before translating legal prinicples into data, and they quietly but effectively show the need to put any "ethnographic present" in a historical context." Virginia R. Dominguez, American Anthropologist
"The strengths of Moors's study lie in its detail and in the ways this detail is linked to issues of larger theoretical substance....this is in many ways a fascinating and suggestive ethnographic study that raises questions about the relationship between written evidence and social practice that are useful for historians to consider." Ylana N. Millar, American Historical Review
"Combining detailed examination and broad theoretical framework, Moors' study is an important contribution in understanding the position of women in a rapidly changing society." Rachel Simon, Ph.D., DOMES

Moors, Annelies: - Annelies Moors is a professor at the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at the University of Amsterdam where she holds the ISIM (International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World) chair for the social scientific study of contemporary Muslim societies and directs the research programme on Cultural Politics and Islam. She has published in edited volumes and journals on such varied topics as visualizing the nation-gender nexus, gold and globalization, Muslims and fashion, and migrant domestic labour in the Middle East.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780521483551
ISBN 10	0521483557
Title	Women, Property and Islam
Author	Annelies Moors
Series	Cambridge Middle East Studies
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Cambridge University Press
Year published	1996-02-29
Number of pages	288
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.