Women's Rights in the Triangle of State, Law, and Religion: A Comparison of Egypt and India

Authors

Yüksel Sezgin

Abstract

The main premise of this Essay is that personal status laws, whether based on Muslim, Jewish, or Hindu tradition, are men-made (implying that no females were involved in this process), socio-political constructions that have come invariably to discriminate against women and deny them equal rights in familial relations. However, women do not silently acquiesce in violation of their rights and liberties by male-dominated religious norms and institutions. On the contrary, women-led hermeneutic communities all over the world are spearheading a silent but steady revolution that redefines women's role as rights-bearing and equal individuals in familial and public space. In doing so, women's groups contest the scriptural monopoly of state-sanctioned religious institutions, reinterpret religious laws, and reinvent the tradition by vernacularizing international human rights and womens' discourses.

Recommended Citation

Yüksel Sezgin, Women's Rights in the Triangle of State, Law, and Religion: A Comparison of Egypt and India, 25 Emory Int'l L. Rev. 1007 (2011).
Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.emory.edu/eilr/vol25/iss2/12