Summary of the Issue

Tuzla, Bosnia. 1995. Azra Petrovic, a Muslim from Gracanica, receives a kiss from her daughter, Maja, 7, as they are reunited after more than three years. Photo Credit: Ruth Fremson/AP Images.

From an international human rights perspective, mothers and fathers are both equal partners in the family with the same parental rights and responsibilities for their children.¹ In Islam, motherhood has always been regarded with deep respect. A man once asked the Prophet to whom he should show the most kindness. The Prophet replied: "Your mother, next your mother, next your mother, and then your father."² In another Hadith, the prophet states that heaven is under the mother’s feet.³ Islam holds both parents responsible for their children’s upbringing. The Quran states even divorced parents shall have ‘mutual consent and due consultation’.⁴

Throughout the Muslim world, governments have adopted laws that undermine women’s rights and her contributions to the family. These laws regard the husband as the head of the family. Even though the Qur’an sets a framework for equal and reciprocal moral relationships and balanced responsibilities of women and men, there are still civil laws that discriminate against women.⁵ Divorced women in several Muslim-majority countries if remarried lose custody. In Egypt, if a divorced woman remarries, children are automatically removed from the mother’s custody. In Lebanon and several other Muslim-majority countries, the law prevents the women from passing her citizenship to her children and husband. Yet, men married to foreign-born women can obtain citizenship rights for their spouses and children without much difficulty.

Nonetheless, Muslim women have made several advances in organizing themselves and building solidarity. Their concerns are better articulated and integrated in the political discourse. In 2004, Moroccan parliament passed a series of revisions to its family law code. It established that women and men have equal responsibility and status within the family.⁶ Similarly, in 2001 Turkey passed a new civil code that defines the family as a union based on equal partnerships. Children born out of wedlock, referred to in the earlier civil law as illegitimate children, are now the custody of their mother.⁷ Likewise, Tunisia — one of the first Muslim Arab countries to establish a more reformed family civil code that promotes women’s rights — requires both parties in marriage to be consenting and provides women with the right to divorce and opportunity to obtain child custody. In addition, Tunisian family law grants women lifelong alimony upon divorce and automatic guardianship over her child upon the death of the father.

[1] Convention on All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)
[2] Sunan of Abu-Dawood: Paradise Is At the Feet of Mothers
[3] Al-Tirmidhi
[4] 2:233
[5] Amina Wadud. Islam Beyond Patriarchy Through Gender Inclusive Quranic Analysis
[6] Chandrakirana, Kamala. Women’s Place and Displacement in the Muslim Family: Realities from the Twenty First Century.
[7] ibid.