<DIV>Islamic family law has an immediate and direct impact on the lives of Muslim men, women and children, whose personal status continues to be defined by understandings of Islamic law codified and adapted by modern nation-states. This book examines how male authority is sustained through law and court practice, the consequences for women and the family, and the demands made by Muslim women's groups. Examining the construction of male guardianship (qiwama, wilaya) in the Islamic tradition, it also seeks to create an argument for women's full equality before the law. Bringing together renowned Muslim scholars and experts, anthropologists who have carried out fieldwork in family courts, and human rights and women's rights activists from different parts of the Muslim world, from Morocco to Egypt and Iran, this book develops a framework for rethinking Islamic Law and its traditions in ways that reflect contemporary realities and understandings of justice and gender rights.</p></div>