Women & Islamic Cultures Family, Law and Politics

M. Tokhtakhodjaeva, Women in Central Asian society, in

Women Against Fundamentalisms 4 (1992/3), 29– 31,

<http://waf.gn.apc.org/j4p29.htm>.

Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML), Uzbe-

kistan. Polygamy in Central Asia, 31 October 2003,

<http://www.wluml.org/english/>.

Bill Bowring

The Gulf and Yemen

Customary law is the term used for written and

unwritten codes of conduct in rural tribal commu-

nities, both settled and nomadic, in the Gulf and

Yemen. Urban communities in the region maintain

that their legal systems are based on Sharì≠a, or

Qur±ànic law, in contrast to rural systems based on

custom. In reality, there has been considerable

mutual borrowing between rural custom and urban

law, especially in neighboring communities. Details

of customary law vary with time and place, but

rules always valorize the components of tribal

honor: collective responsibility, autonomy, genero-

sity, hospitality, the protection of the weak, equal-

ity within the tribal population, the sanctity of

contract, and the importance of mediation. Known

simply as “custom” in Arabic (≠urf, silf) customary

law not only specifies formal mechanisms for set-

tling disputes within and between communities but

also reciprocal obligations between and within kin

groups. These are considered obligatory. For exam-

ple, a woman in rural Yemen who attended a large

wedding planning to dance among the guests was

called upon by the hostess, “Oh wife of my cousin,

come help knead dough [for the guests].” The guest

ruefully acknowledged, “True, I am your cousin’s

wife,” and joined the cooks in the kitchen. In this

case, the hostess presented an obligation recog-

nized as binding within this system (Adra 1982). By

the same token, a guest can deride a stingy hostess

or host in public because hospitality is not consid-

ered a personal issue but a social obligation (Adra

1982).

There are no accepted mechanisms of coercion in

traditional tribal society in the Arabian Peninsula.

A shaykh or mediator’s influence is persuasive

rather than coercive. In formal dispute mediation,

an animal is sacrificed and/or money is handed over

to signal that a settlement has been reached. Dis-

puting parties generally share a meal to make the

settlement binding. The basic format for mediation

includes lengthy discussions in which each side

presents its case until consensus is reached about

the degree of blame and appropriate amends or

reparations. The same format is followed infor-

mally in disputes within a household, or, with more

418 law: customary

serious intercommunity criminal acts or warfare, it

may involve mediators from outside the commu-

nity who are paid for their efforts.

Within a community, if women or men quarrel,

others close to them (women or men) will try to

mediate the dispute. The offender will be called

upon to present a gift or money to make amends. If

no acceptable apology or reparations are made at

this point, a woman’s male kin will institute formal

mediation processes in which they represent her

interests. Men may represent themselves.

Technically, only the testimony of mature, male

tribal Muslims is accepted during formal media-

tion. Yet, in practice, women’s input in community

conflict resolution is important. During men’s de-

bates, women meet to discuss the same issues. In the

evenings, women discuss the case further with hus-

bands and brothers who then bring their opinions

back to the mediation process the next day. When

discussions are held in the tent dwellings of pas-

toralists, women participate actively, although in

some areas they may do so from behind a curtain.

Disputes among women most often involve hus-

bands or relatives through marriage. A woman who

is insulted by her husband or his relatives may go

to her father or brother’s house in protest (™anaq in

Yemen’s northern highlands). Her husband is

honor-bound to follow her, present her with a gift

and ask her to return. In the case of repeat offenses,

outside mediators may be brought in, and irrecon-

cilable conflict may result in her family’s demand

for a divorce. If a man takes a second wife, his first

wife almost always asks for divorce. There is no

stigma attached to divorce in rural communities in

this region, with serial marriage being common.

Customary law reflects the tribe’s male orienta-

tion. All formal interactions between groups are

negotiated through men. Rituals of tribal display,

for example, razfat al-≠iyàlain the Gulf, barà≠a per-

formance and zàmilpoetry in Yemen, as well as

the blood feud, are male activities. Men usually rep-

resent women during legal transactions. Marriage

is formally negotiated through male kin. In princi-

ple, women are kept away from the scrutiny of

strangers and are not referred to by name in public.

At formal functions, segregation by gender is the

rule. Women, along with guests, clients, religious

minorities, and children, constitute the unarmed

population to whom tribesmen owe protection.

A system that is so ideologically male is, in prac-

tice, less detrimental to women than one would

expect. Tribal custom’s high valuation of the family

and of alliances made through marriage lead to a

respect for motherhood and an acknowledgment of

the important roles women play in the tribal sys-