worked out, for example by jurists of the £anafì
school that predominates in South Asia. As Ahmad
observes, “caste among Muslims... owes...di-
rectly to Hindu influences, but... has been rein-
forced by the justification offered for the idea of
birth and descent as criteria of status in Islamic
law” (1978, 15). Status is intimately connected to
norms governing marriage, which vary regionally
and according to specific community, rather than
creed only.Forging alliances: marriage,
economics, and politics
While in December 2003 a constitutional Pakis-
tani court ruled that an adult woman may marry
without her guardian’s permission, in July 2004,
the Muttahida Majlis-i Amal, the ruling party in
Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province drafted
the Hisbah Bill, a law according to which marriage
without parental consent will be construed as an
act of disobedience, and hence forbidden (Rahman
2004). Indeed, among all South Asians marriage
continues to be overwhelmingly arranged by par-
ents or other elders, often against the explicit
wishes of the adult woman, or minor girl. Though
often interpreted as expressions of mystic love, the
famous legends of Hìr-Rànjhà, Îholà-Maru,
Mahendra-Mùmal, and others, eulogizing roman-
tic love, are often sung at engagement ceremonies,
which, however, only males may attend. Female
sexuality is recognized exclusively within the
bounds of heterosexual marriage, which is consid-
ered essential. Significantly, no legal provisions
exist regarding the maintenance of unmarried
major Muslim women during their father’s life
time. Even prostitutes in Bangladesh are “married”
to “banana trees... the sun or the moon” (Kota-
lová 1993, 194) as part of their professional initia-
tion rites. The only category of unmarried Muslim
women who were provided for were perhaps cour-
tesans who, drawing on economic resources
intended for the legitimate domestic unit, provided
cultured noblemen of past centuries with intelligent
companionship, taught them refined manners and
the fine arts, and sometimes also initiated their sons
into the pleasures of sexuality.
Birth rituals draw heavily on local pre-Islamic
customs, and though in India active female infanti-
cide is minimal among Muslims as compared to
Hindus, daughters tend to be neglected throughout
South Asia. Wedding rituals also largely resemble
local non-Muslim practice, the signing of the nikà™
(marriage contract) being an additional, obligatory
act. In India if such nikà™marriages are addition-
ally registered under the Special Marriage Act of340 kinship, descent systems and state
1954, the husband may bequeath a greater share of
inheritance to his wife and children than would be
permissible under the existing traditional fiqhlaws.
The Pakistan Muslim Family Ordinance of 1962
makes nikà™registration compulsory. In Bangla-
desh the registration of marriages is rare in rural
areas; so is polygamy, though the Bangladesh Mus-
lim Family Ordinance of 1961 allows it. In Indian-
administered Kashmir, though the Dukhtaràn-e
Millat, a militant women’s organization closely
linked to the local Jamà≠at-i Islàmìadvocates poly-
gamy, its practice is extremely rare. In Pakistan
polygamy is restricted by law to cases where the
court certifies that the first wife is barren or suffer-
ing from terminal illness and requires her consent.
Practice, however, does not always adhere to these
legal restrictions. Even after marriage, Muslim
women retain membership of their patri-group and
act as major socioeconomic balancing links between
their natal and conjugal families, for example
through the continued exchange of gifts incorpo-
rated in the institutions of vartan-bhànjiand salàmi
in Pakistani Punjab (Alavi 1995, Eglar 1960,
Naveed-i-Rahat 1981). Preferential lineage and/or
caste endogamy is the norm, and giving a daugh-
ter/sister in marriage outside such a unit is tanta-
mount to lowering social status and publicly
acknowledging this decrease. While many groups
prefer cousin marriage, some who were closely
linked to non-Muslim elites avoid marrying close
kin (Ahmad 1976, Donnan 1988, Rao 2000). In
parts of pre-partition urban India, marriages with
close kin appear to have been less frequent, partly
because the pool of potential partners was larger
and partly because the sense of social insecurity as
a minority community was absent. Exchange mar-
riages of siblings or other close kin, sometimes over
generations, are not rare. These consolidate exist-
ing networks and are usually less expensive, with
low marriage prestations. They also inhibit exces-
sive conflict between a man’s wife and mother (and
other senior female kin) and further enable some
relaxation of the otherwise strict avoidance behav-
ior vis-à-vis his senior male kin. The disadvantages
of preferential exchange are the lack of individual
freedom and the dangers of one unhappy marriage
in such a set easily affecting the other, especially
given the strong emotional bonds between siblings.
Short stories by noted Muslim women authors por-
tray further problems inherent in such preferential
systems in rapidly changing socioeconomic envi-
ronments, where women from poor, traditional
families wait in desperation for the wealthier and
less traditional cousin’s family to propose.
The choice of a spouse for one’s child and the