Wives and Work: Islamic Law and Ethics Before Modernity

The conventional understanding is that classical Islamic law absolves wives from any obligation to perform household chores. This idea emerged in response to Orientalist notions about the "oppressed Muslim woman" and has been a prominent theme in Muslim feminist writings in the United States since the 1980s. Marion Holmes Katz's book Wives and Work reexamines debates on wives' domestic labor in the historical context of Islamic law and ethics. She reconstructs a complex discussion among Sunni legal scholars from the ninth to fourteenth centuries and explores its implications for family, labor, and gendered personhood. Katz emphasizes the divergence between legal claims and ethical ideals and shows how legal models can be informed by philosophical ethics.

Format: Hardback
Length: 320 pages
Publication date: 25 October 2022
Publisher: Columbia University Press

It is widely believed today that classical Islamic law emancipates wives from any obligation to engage in household chores. The notion that wives were exempt from domestic labor gained prominence among Muslims in response to Orientalist stereotypes depicting the "oppressed Muslim woman" by the late nineteenth century. This concept has been a central theme in writings by Muslim feminists in the United States since the 1980s.

In her book titled "Wives and Work," Marion Holmes Katz provides a fresh perspective on the debates surrounding wives' domestic labor. She reconstructs a intricate discussion among Sunni legal scholars from the ninth to fourteenth centuries CE and delves into its far-reaching implications. As early as the ninth century, the prevailing doctrine that wives had no legal obligation to perform household chores conflicted with what most scholars considered morally and religiously correct. Scholars sought to resolve this tension through diverse approaches, ranging from establishing a clear distinction between legal claims and ethical ideals to seeking a harmonious synthesis of the two. Katz situates the legal discourse within a broader context of Islamic normative discourse, highlighting how legal models diverge from but can sometimes be informed by philosophical ethics. Through the lens of wives' domestic labor, this book offers a novel insight into notions of family, labor, and gendered personhood, as well as the interplay between legal and ethical doctrines in Islamic thought.

Weight: 564g
Dimension: 160 x 237 x 25 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780231206884