Sayyed Jaafar Fadlullah has arrived at Birmingham, UK, to take part in the 3rd annual jurisprudential workshop held by Al-Mahdi Institute with the aim of facilitating scholarship directly addressing questions on ‘Family law in Islam; between the demands of fiqh and society’. Such topic is highly important considering the attack on how Islam views the woman and her role in the family, not to mention the increasing rate of domestic violence cases. Moreover, important issues, such as marriage, divorce, adoption, custody, inheritance, abuse and others are enlisted under the family law, so subjecting this law to re-readings in the light of new conceptions and perceptions is recommended to ensure that it is never outdated.
The workshop programme is held on the 26th and 27th of March, 2015. Several figures from all over the world will take part in this workshop. On March 26, 2015 and following the registration and welcome and opening remarks, several speeches will be made in the following order: The Quranic Basis for Family Relationsby Sayyed Jaafar Fadlullah from the Fadhlallah Institute, Coherence in Surat An-Nisa’: The Supposition of Women’s Economic dependenceby Dr. Rawand Osman from Al-Mahdi Institute, Towards Non-patriarchal Islamic Hermeneutics by Dr. Adis Duderija from Malay University, Family Law in the UKby Dr. Samia Bano from the University of London, SOAS, Unregistered Muslim Marriages- a ticking time bomb?by Aina Khan from Duncan Lewis Solicitors, Between the Demands of Fiqh and Austinian Jurisprudence: an anthropologically grounded perspectiveby Dr. Roger Ballard from the Centre for Applied South Asian Studies, Muslim Family Laws and the challenge of Equalityby Dr. Ziba Mir Hosseini from the University of London, SOAS, and Adoption in Islamby Sheikh Arif Abdul Hussain from Al-Mahdi Institute. The first day will be rounded up with concluding remarks.
The workshop will be continued on the 27th of March and it will be the platform for the following speeches, in the following order:Guardianship and the Marriage Contract (awliya al-‘aqd) in Twelver Shi’ite Lawby Prof. Liyakat Takim from McMaster University, Inter-faith Marriage in Im?m? Exegesis and Jurisprudence: The search for Legal Intent and Communal Boundariesby Sheikh Vinay Khetia from McMaster University, The Jurist in the New State: the Failure of the codification of Sh??? Family Law in Iraq by Sheikh Hasan Beloushi from Exeter University, Re-reading the ayat al-ahkam in the Quran regarding family relationsby Prof. Ayat. Muhaqiq Damad from Shahid Beheshti University, Domestic Violence between Religion and Cultureby Dr. Ali Fanaei from Al-Mahdi Institute, Autonomy & Marital Rape; A Virtue Reading of the Islamic Sourcesby Prof. Sayed M. Ghari Fatemi from Al-Mahdi Institute and Muslims between fiqh & Society: Maqasid al-sharia and modern common Moralityby Dr. Lena Larsen from the University of Oslo. Day two will be rounded up with concluding remarks.