Publisher's Synopsis
By reinterpreting Quranic texts and analysing traditional Arab customs, this book offers a new perspective on women's lives in the modern Muslim world to reveal that equal personal and democratic rights of men and women reflect the true spirit of the Qur'an. The status of women in the pre-Islamic period in which the Arab adaat guided customs are contrasted with the role of women in the Islamic period to identify how policies of marriage, divorce, inheritance, custody of children, property rights, and polygamy were affected by the introduction of Islam. The importance of religious traditions and contemporary social realities are balanced in this progressive call to re-evaluate Muslim personal law and the common civil code.
