Gender Muslim Family Law And Contesting Patriarchy In Mandate Palestine 1925 1939

This dissertation examines Palestinian Muslim women's interactions and negotiations within the Jerusalem Shari'a Court from 1925-1939. My research on nafaqa (so-called maintenance), female-initiated divorce, and child custody cases from Jerusalem and its surrounding villages expands on the scholarship that demonstrates Palestinian Muslim women were historically active participants in the shari'a court system and their legal affairs. Far from being passive and silenced, Palestinian Muslim women regularly initiated lawsuits and demanded their rights in court. In the nearly all of the cases examined here, the woman was appearing in court on her own initiative and most often she was arguing her own case. In addition, my interviews with Palestinian women suggests that most women had at least a general understanding of their rights in shari'a during this period, and women who took part in court proceedings were or soon became acutely aware of their rights and restraints.