stricted to family law, which was sometimes modi-
fied to improve women’s rights. In 1930s Sudan,
where the British supported the pre-existing cen-
tralized Islamic legal system, Islamic authorities
encouraged legal reform that benefited women; for
example, divorce through unilateral repudiation,
†alàq, was made illegal (Fluehr-Lobban 1994). In
some areas, despite popular conceptions that Euro-
pean law was more progressive in terms of women’s
rights, women often received greater benefit from
Islamic courts. In colonial Zanzibar, a woman
could obtain a divorce from an Islamic court on the
grounds of a husband’s cruelty but could not from
a British judge. Rather, a judicial separation might
be ordered to influence her husband to divorce her
himself or to cease paying maintenance, which
could lead to a divorce (Anderson 1970).
The dawn of independence sparked debates
about women and Islamic law vis-à-vis other legal
spheres in many African states, several of which
had to address issues of religious pluralism, the co-
existence of multiple legal systems, and women’s
status. Some states, such as Senegal and Mali, abol-
ished Islamic courts. Issues of gender equality vis-à-
vis Sharì≠a came to the forefront in others. Could a
state committed to equality of all persons permit,
for example, Islamic legal rules of witnessing and
inheritance in which women and men are treated
differently?
In Nigeria, the issue of Islamic law has been con-
troversial since independence. Much of the debate
centered on the Sharì≠a court of appeals, which
became a symbol of the public role of Islam on the
national level. Nigerian Muslims proposed that
Islamic courts were a necessary component of reli-
gious freedom in a secular state, and argued that
Muslims could not freely practice religion without
them (Laitin 1986). The controversy peaked with
the 1999 decision of twelve northern states to
instate Islamic criminal law. The media frenzy sur-
rounding the 2003 case of Amina Lawal, who was
accused of adultery and sentenced to stoning by a
primary Islamic court, fanned the flames. An
Islamic appeals court eventually rescinded the
lower court’s decision by citing a violation of pro-
cedural law and the Màlikìlegal principle of a
“sleeping fetus,” which asserts that a fetus can
“sleep” in the womb for several years.
Controversy over Islamic law also raged in reli-
giously plural Sudan. In the 1970s, al-Numayrì
issued presidential decrees to improve the status of
women by easing judicial divorce in abusive mar-
riages and improving women’s maintenance rights.
In the 1980s, he declared Islamic law state law.
Unlike elsewhere in Africa, Islamic law was to be
sub-saharan africa 397applied to all matters – not just family law. This was
very controversial, largely because of Sudan’s sub-
stantial non-Muslim population, and led to civil
war. Despite the controversy, in 1990 the Islamist
government codified Islamic family law. The codi-
fication aimed to improve women’s status by, for
example, easing marriage restrictions and increas-
ing benefits of marital maintenance (Fluehr-Lobban
1994).
Tanzania has a substantial Muslim minority, and
with independence, Nyerere hoped to prevent reli-
gious strife by instituting different laws for differ-
ent religions with the Marriage Act introduced in
the early 1970s. Islamic courts were established in
the Muslim-majority island state of Zanzibar, but
not on the mainland. Though Islamic family law is
not codified in Zanzibar, the Kadhi’s Act of 1985
addressed gender issues in procedural law by
requiring that judges give equal weight to the testi-
mony of all witnesses, regardless of gender, ethnic-
ity, or religion. The extent to which judges adhere
to this is a different matter. On the mainland,
experts in religious law advise the secular courts on
Muslim family law. This is similar to the approach
taken in Mali and South Africa.
Today, there is much regional specificity in the
way in which Islamic law is incorporated and artic-
ulated vis-à-vis other legal orders. In religiously
plural states like Nigeria, Kenya, and Niger, reli-
gious courts are important arenas for addressing
gender and cultural pluralism. Islamic legal institu-
tions can be an important way for Muslim women
to assert rights, and in most Islamic courts, women
open the majority of cases in court. They success-
fully present claims and win cases in courts that
outsiders have often viewed as more favorable to
men. Kenyan women, for example, use the courts
to resist and challenge patriarchal relationships in
the home (Hirsch 1997). In legally plural environ-
ments, it is common for women to make shrewd
choices of judge or venue in hopes of a favorable
settlement. In Niger, for example, women strategi-
cally use Islamic or customary law as a resource to
secure land (Walker 1992).
Activists and scholars of gender policy assert the
importance of reforming religious and/or custom-
ary personal status law to improve women’s social
and economic positions. Some propose that stricter
adherence to Islamic law will improve women’s sta-
tus. In Zanzibar, for example, activists and Islamic
scholars alike argue that following Islamic mar-
riage laws would improve women’s position. An
example often cited concerns the mahari (mahr),
the marriage gift paid by the groom to the bride,
which the bride’s elders often appropriate. If families