Workshop on the Role of Sharia, Custom and Law in Yemen

The Departement of Archeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion (AKHR), University of Bergen, in cooperation with the Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI) and the Centre of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies kindly invites to the following workshop on May 18-19, 2009:

The Role of Sharia, Custom and Law in Family Conflicts.
Cases from Yemen

Monday 18 May, 2009 :

10:00 : Welcome
10:15 : Introduction
10:30 : Dr. Anna Würth: Wilaya Politics in Yemen – Window Dressing or Being Serious?
12:00 : Lunch
13:00 : Eirik Hovden: Theoretical Reflections around the Relationship between the Sharia,
            Urf (established custom), and Law
14:00 : Break
14:15 : Katja Jansen Fredriksen: The Fredrikstad City Court case: Forced marriage in Yemen
            before a Norwegian court
15:15 : Break
15:30 : Mohammad Abdulsalam Mansour: The Sharia in Marriage, in Theory and Practice
17:00 : Break
19:00 : Dinner

Tuesday 19 May, 2009 :

09:00 : Welcome
09:15 : Saliha Marie Fettah: Early Marriage in Yemen: Women’s Possibilities of Empowerment
10:45 : Break
11:00 : Open session
12:00 : Lunch
13:00 : Open session
14:00 : Discussion
15:00 : Conclusion

Introduction, Registration and Papers

The workshop is also open for other contributions in the field of family law and family relations in Yemen in two open sessions on the second day.

Papers:
Abstracts to the open session (no more than 100 words) should be submitted to Katja.Fredriksen@jur.uib.no.
Deadline: April 15, 2009.

Registration:
For registration (name, title, address, affiliation) and accommodation information please contact Katja Jansen Fredriksen on tel: + 47 55 58 97 57 or Katja.Fredriksen@jur.uib.no.
Deadline: April 15, 2009.

Abstracts

The recent change of Article 15 in the Yemeni Law on Personal Status has been largely greeted with praise by the Yemeni press, NGO scene, gender machinery, and outside observers. The absence of a minimum age for marriage, legislated into practice in 1999, has been an embarrassment for the Yemeni government nationally and internationally for the past years. The question remains whether the new provision will have teeth in practice, and help to prevent early marriages without victimizing those affected. Dr. Anna Würth will analyse the relevant Yemeni articles on wilaya in marriage and those on validity of marriage, comparing the different legislative texts from the 1970s up to the current reform. It will draw on past and current debates on wilaya and its social effects, discussing legal, judicial, medical, and human rights related issues.

Eirik Hovden (PhD fellow, University of Bergen): Theoretical Reflections around the Relationship between the Sharia, Urf (established custom), and Law

The presentation will focus on some epistemological and methodological reflections on the three norm systems of Sharia, urf and law and how they are theoretically interconnected. Each of the three consists of quite different types of knowledge and fields of application depending on which part of society the subjects belong to. In addition, there is a significant difference between theory and practice. To which extent do informants have the freedom to choose between them? And how do their thoughts and actions actually relate to the texts of these norms?

 Katja Jansen Fredriksen (PhD fellow, University of Bergen): The Fredrikstad City Court case: Forced marriage in Yemen before a Norwegian court

The case that appeared at the Fredrikstad City Court in 1998 involved a Somali girl that had had been living in Norway since she was nine years old. After the death of her sister her mother took her to relatives in Somalia and later to Yemen, where she was forced to marry her Quran-teacher in December 1996. With help of friends in Norway the girl managed to return to Norway where her marriage was dissolved by the court. The paper will draw parallels to the Nujood Ali case in Yemen and place the Fredrikstad case in a broader perspective of legislation and governmental action against the practice of forced marriage among immigrants in Norway.

Mohammad Abdulsalam Mansour (Author of the Yemeni Law on the Rights of the Child and judge): The Sharia in Marriage, in Theory and Practice.

Mohammad Abdulsalam Mansour will start with a short introduction of his professional background in law and Sharia in general and his involvement in the process behind the Yemeni childrens law. He will then focus on wilaya in marriage and the differences between the schools of jurisprudence of Islam, before turning to the situation in Yemen. Under certain circumstances the Sharia gives women the right to appoint a judge as her wali (guardian) in case she disagrees with her wali's decision. For different reasons, among which urf and custom in Yemen, this option is not open for women. The presentation will be held in Arabic with translation of the headlines and the main issues into English.

Saliha Marie Fettah (Lecturer, University of Southern Denmark, Odense): Early Marriage in Yemen: Women's Possibilities of Empowerment.

According to many international reports, Yemen is not only one of the poorest countries in the world but also one of the countries with the highest prevalence of early marriages among girls. In 2006 the average age for a Yemeni girl getting married was 17 in the bigger towns like the capital Sana and 15 years in the rural districts. The aim of my project was to study how early marriages affect women’s possibilities of empowerment in Yemen. My research is not based on reports from international organisations but mainly based on a number of interviews with women married at the age of 12 – 15. My purpose was to get the women express themselves about their lives, dreams, hopes and problems related to their early marriages.