Papers by nadia sonneveld
Gender and Careers in the Legal Academy, 2021
Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable... more Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.
Routledge Handbook OF Citizenship in the Middle East and North Africa, 2020
Citizenship Studies, 2021
ABSTRACT In the last two decades, empirical scholars have asserted that citizenship may include m... more ABSTRACT In the last two decades, empirical scholars have asserted that citizenship may include memberships in political communities other than the nation-state. This paper is based on fieldwork (2015–2017) on the rights of Internally Displaced Persons in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It provides an empirically grounded analysis of the multiple political communities in which forced migrants take part and how membership in these communities helps them to claim fundamental rights, which the state is unable to provide. We outline various pre-displacement and post-displacement memberships, and show that they have different participation requirements, leading to varying levels of integration of people who are displaced from their communities of origin. The paper provides a methodological contribution to critical approaches to studying citizenship and informal political communities. It also contributes to well-informed policy-making in the humanitarian aid context of Eastern Congo.
Hawwa, 2020
Rather than being an exception, judicial permission for minor marriage has become a rule in Moroc... more Rather than being an exception, judicial permission for minor marriage has become a rule in Morocco. Based on legal analysis and anthropological fieldwork in 2015, I show that the gender of the judge does not significantly contribute to the way the provision on minor marriage is implemented in Moroccan courthouses. Instead, I argue in favour of an approach that is grounded in a relational understanding of law. Both male and female judges were manoeuvring the internal incompatibilities contained within and between state laws, which are the result of external recognition—in other words, the recognition of other normative orders, notably customary law practices. This relational understanding of law, and the ambiguities it naturally results in, amounts to a better understanding of law in action than the distinction between an “ethic of justice” and an “ethic of care,” which highlights gender-specific ways of legal decision-making, which are not supported by the Moroccan case.
New Middle Eastern Studies, 2015
In 2011, the world witnessed how massive civil resistance by men andwomen alike led to the forced... more In 2011, the world witnessed how massive civil resistance by men andwomen alike led to the forced departure of long-serving authoritarian leaders in the Arabworld. In the present transitional period in which constitutions have been suspended and newdefinitions of citizenship are being debated, women’s rights and family law have neverthelessemerged as contentious areas in the Arab World. These have been portrayed as symbols ofthe old regime and as deviating from the principles of shariʿa. Calls to amend women’srights abound. By comparing both pre- and post-revolutionary family law developments infour Muslim-majority countries, this special series of articles explores the implications ofthese controversies on the rights of men and women in the political transition processes ofEgypt, Indonesia, Iran, and Tunisia.
Politics, Religion & Ideology, 2019
Yearbook of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law Online, 2011
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Islamic Law and Society, 2019
This essay focuses on recent divorce reforms in Egypt (2000) and Morocco (2004), with equal atten... more This essay focuses on recent divorce reforms in Egypt (2000) and Morocco (2004), with equal attention to the positions of men and women who end their marriages. Whereas in Egypt, non-consensual, no-fault divorce reform (khul‘) is open only to women, in Morocco, another form of non-consensual, no-fault divorce, shiqāq, is open to both women and men, with men using it almost as frequently as women. Based on legal analysis and anthropological fieldwork, I consider first how men and women navigate rights and duties in divorce and then examine the differences between the two countries in the way men and women try to obtain divorce. I conclude that when both men and women are given opportunities for non-consensual, no fault divorce, highly gender-specific divorce regimes, such as the ṭalāq and taṭlīq, quickly lose their popularity.
Islamic Law and Society, 2019
This special issue of Islamic Law and Society takes a close look at contemporary manifestations o... more This special issue of Islamic Law and Society takes a close look at contemporary manifestations of an Islamic divorce procedure known as khulʿ. Studying khulʿ is not an easy matter, in large part because it is not exactly clear what khulʿ is. Is khulʿ consensual or non-consensual, judicial or extrajudicial, fault or no-fault based? Does khulʿ result in ṭalāq (unilateral repudiation by a husband), or is it an entirely different form of divorce? Is khulʿ initiated by wives or by husbands? As we will explain below, the answer to all of these questions is “yes,” as khulʿ is all of these things.
Review of Middle East Studies, 2016
he left our world without accomplishing what he really wanted.” Most emblematic—and captivating—i... more he left our world without accomplishing what he really wanted.” Most emblematic—and captivating—is Galal Amin, economist andmemoirist: “The world was different and what seems impossible now, seemed very possible then!” The greatest challenge facing the filmmaker is to address the present without presupposition and without letting the 2011 uprising against Hosni Mubarak and the subsequent 2013 military overthrow of Mohamed Morsi dictate her exploration and presentation of history. Nasser’s Republic is meant to evoke and enliven the past, and it succeeds in doing so, raising compelling questions that do resonate today. What did Nasserismmean to Egypt and the wider Arab world? What did Nasser achieve and fail to achieve? Why was he such a force in Third World politics? How, after a string of defeats in the 1960s, did he remain a leader who so many Egyptians could not reject? How accountable should he be for the lack of democracy? Nasser skeptics may feel that the film is overwhelmingly positive, but their arguments are also given voice. From a teacher’s perspective, this film is a godsend, either as supplement or standalone lesson for such an important era of Middle East/world history. Nasser’s Repubic is the first English-language documentary to focus on Nasser and his rule in over three decades, and to treat him as an Egyptian patriot and politician with broad social concerns and lasting impact beyond authoritarian legacies and theArab–Israeli conflict (the last English-language biography was an episode of Drew Middleton’s series ‘Portraits of Power: Those Who Shaped the Twentieth Century’ [dir. Jeremey Murray-Brown, 1979]). The storyline is crisp, the archival footage, much of it fresh, is gripping, and the witnesses are compelling. At the film’s center is an officer turned politician who is photogenic, charismatic, shrewd, and sometimes reckless. His growing ease on the public stage is encapsulated in a wonderful clip, post-Suez, when he has some choicewords for the Britishmonarch. His resignation address on June 9, 1967, even if staged to spark a cry for him to stay on (I don’t buy it), demonstrates awillingness to look his people in the eye and confront disaster together. He continues to loom over those rulers, elected or not, Egyptians and others, who still attempt to emulate him.
Religion and Gender, 2017
To what extent have notions of manhood and womanhood as incorporated in Egyptian Muslim family la... more To what extent have notions of manhood and womanhood as incorporated in Egyptian Muslim family law changed over the course of almost a century of family law reforms, and why? In answering this question, I draw on the works of two Egyptian intellectuals, Qasim Amin and Azza Heikal, because they discussed ideas about manhood and womanhood in relation to Islamic religion and authoritarian rule. My analysis shows that there is a dire need within studies on gender in the Middle East to assess the effectiveness of family law reform on both women’s and men’s agency. After all, when an authoritarian government introduces legislation that enhances women’s legal rights with regard to the family but does not reform men’s legal rights inside that same family, it is not surprising that when political oppression ends, disenfranchised men will try to abolish the laws that expanded their wives’ freedom and curtailed theirs.
Religion and Gender, 2017
Religion and Gender, 2014
Recht der Werkelijkheid, 2014
Indonesische dienstbode in Riyadh: 'Really, they are good to me. If I say I need rest, they give ... more Indonesische dienstbode in Riyadh: 'Really, they are good to me. If I say I need rest, they give me rest.' Vlieger: 'And if they were not so good to you, if you would have some problem with your employer, where would you go?' Dienstbode: 'Madam, I cannot go anywhere. I am not allowed to go outside. I cannot go to the embassy. I will just cry in my room and pray.' 1
International Journal of Law in Context, 2015
The issue of women serving as judges has been a contentious one in Egyptian society for nearly ei... more The issue of women serving as judges has been a contentious one in Egyptian society for nearly eight decades. While other Muslim majority countries started appointing women judges as early as the 1950s and 1960s, it was not until 2003 that the Egyptian government announced the appointment of its first ever female judge. Despite the approval of Egypt's religious scholars, her appointment was fiercely contested, among both the general public and the legal profession. In this paper we explore the question of why the appointment of women as judges provokes so much controversy in Egyptian society, and in the judiciary in particular. We show that the debate reveals a preoccupation with the proper place of women in society. With both traditionally educated religious scholars and people lacking formal religious training justifying their point of view by resorting to religious argumentation, the debate is also a clear example of the fragmentation of religious authority in Islam.
International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family, 2014
Bespreking van: Y. Sezgin,Human rights under state-enforced religious family laws in Israel, Egyp... more Bespreking van: Y. Sezgin,Human rights under state-enforced religious family laws in Israel, Egypt, and India Cambridge:Cambridge University Press ,2013 9781107041400
Public Debates, Judicial Practices, and Everyday Life, 2012
Public Debates, Judicial Practices, and Everyday Life, 2012
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Papers by nadia sonneveld