Irene Schneider

Imprisonment in Pre-Classical and Classical Islamic Law

Imprisonment, a generally accepted form of punishment in modern legal systems, existed also in Islamic law in the pre-classical and classical periods (second-sixth/eighth-thirteenth centuries), although Muslim jurists devoted only limited attention to the subject and Islamicists have largely ignored it. Muslim jurists of pre-classical and classical times concentrated their attention on pre-trial and administrative detention, especially imprisonment for debt. The jurists mention punitive detention as a supplementary measure that was enacted mostly in conjunction with corporal punishments (ḥudūd and taʿzīr). Because state authorities established a monopoly over criminal jurisdiction at a very early stage, it is possible that punitive detention played a more important role in practice than it did in theory. However, inasmuch as I found only a few examples in historical sources, it seems safe to conclude that punitive detention did not have the same status in pre-modern Islamic law that it does in modern law.

Polygamy and Legislation in Contemporary Iran: An Analysis of the Public Legal Discourse

The purpose of this article is to analyze the interaction between different interpretations of Islamic jurisprudence in Iran and state law. It focuses on the public legal discourse about the new Family Draft Law in 2007–08, especially Article 23 regulating polygamous marriages and removing necessity for the first wifes permission. The participants in this public legal debate, which took place on the internet and in the media, were civil society organizations, especially womens organizations, the Shiite clergy, and state representatives. The article argues that even in a non-democratic, theocratic state such as the Islamic Republic of Iran, public discourse promoted by the named actors can challenge and influence state legislation. The removal of Article 23 from the Draft confirms this argument, but in the law of 2013 the requirement for the first wifes permission is not found. By looking at the arguments brought forward in the public discourse, the article demonstrates that the arguments are mainly “Islamic,” and none refers to international human rights, as this seems to be a kind of taboo in the political discourse.

The Concept of Honor and its Reflection in the Iranian Penal Code

Abstract Honor is an extremely complex social and symbolic concept and a sensitive issue that has generated considerable legal and intellectual discussion in the Islamic world up to the present. The so-called ‘honor killing’ violates the principle of human rights. In this article the focus is on sexual honor and the understanding of the concept of honor and honor killing in the Iranian Penal Code of 1997, according to which a husband can kill his wife and her lover if he finds them committing an adulterous sexual act (zenāʾ). The questions asked are: How are honor killings described or dealt with in the Iranian Penal Code (IPC)? Are honor killings rooted in the Shiʿi jurisprudence (feqh) or custom (ʿorf )?

Registration, Court System, and Procedure in Afghan Family Law

This article focuses on the role of registration, the court system, and procedural regulations as methods of development and legal reform of family law in Afghanistan. It is based on two assumptions: (a) that reform of the substantive law, in this case the family law, is closely connected to reform of structure and procedure, and (b) that legal pluralism as a concept has to be taken into consideration when analysing the legal situation of Afghanistan.1

Muhammad Baqir Šafti (1180-1260/1766-1844) und die Isfahaner Gerichtsbarkeit

Haggi Sayyid Muhammad Baqir ... lebte in Isfahan. Er trug den Titel Huggat al-Isläm; er war einzigartig in seiner Zeit und eine Führergestalt unter den Menschen, brilliant in den Wissenschaften des Arabischen (ilm-iarabiyat), der Astronomie, des Rechts, der Biographie und des hadit.) Er war eine Perle unter den Edlen, herausragend, ein erfahrener Gelehrter, wissend und aktiv, vortrefflich und vorzüglich, gebildet, großzügig und Weihegeschenke verteilend), ein Lehrer der Vollkommenen und Vorzüglichen. Keiner kam ihm gleich an asketischer Strenge, Frömmigkeit und Gottesfurcht.. ,)