PROGRAM UPDATES & HIGHLIGHTS
Dear friends of the Program on Law and Society in the Muslim World,
We are writing to share some exciting news and updates about our program. First, with the return to campus this Fall, we are thrilled to resume our in-person teaching and learning, and to connect with our students and colleagues on campus. We remain hopeful that our in-person programming can resume and be open to community members in the near future, public health circumstances permitting. Second, we are happy to announce the launch of our new website, through which we will be sharing our latest news, event announcements, and scholarship.
We would like to extend a warm welcome to our 2021-2022 cohort of outstanding fellows, and we invite you to learn more about their work and scholarship. Our Visiting Fellowship Program also is now accepting applications for the 2022-2023 academic year, and we encourage experienced and emerging scholars and experienced practitioners to apply.
Please do not hesitate to reach out to us with your questions or comments. We are thankful for your support of the program and hope that you and yours are well.
Warm regards,
Kristen Stilt, Faculty Director and Professor or Law
Salma Waheedi, Associate Director and Lecturer on Law
Ceallaigh Reddy, Program Administrator
Sarah Pickering, Communications Manager
Introducing our 2021-2022 Visiting Fellows
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Samy Ayoub specializes in Islamic law, modern Middle East law, and law and religion in contemporary Muslim societies. He focuses on issues concerning the interaction between religion and law, and the role of religion in contemporary legal and socio-political systems within a global comparative perspective. He has pursued training in both law and Islamic Studies in Egypt, Scotland, and in the United States.
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Alexandre Caeiro is associate professor at the College of Islamic studies, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Doha. He was trained in sociology and Islamic Studies in Ireland, France, the Netherlands, and Egypt. His work deals primarily with Islamic Law and legal pluralism in Muslim majority societies and Muslim minority communities. Caeiro is currently working on a book project on Islam and legal pluralism in the Gulf.
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Fatima Essop is an advocate of the High Court of South Africa and is currently a doctoral candidate in the Law Faculty at the University of Cape Town, where she also lectured. She has practiced as an attorney in public interest litigation at the Legal Resources Centre and Women’s Legal Centre in Cape Town and as an Advocate of the High Court of South Africa in various areas of law, including constitutional law, environmental law and Muslim family law. She is an accredited family law mediator with extensive experience in the area of Muslim family law.
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Marwa Sharafeldin is a scholar activist based in Egypt. Her research and work lies in the intersection between Islamic law, international human rights law and feminist activism in the Muslim world. She holds a Ph.D. from Oxford University, Law Faculty’s Centre for Socio-Legal Studies. Her doctorate examined how Islamic law and human rights discourses interact in the work of family law reformers in Egypt to produce interesting new reform propositions, which sometimes conflict with one another when it comes to gender equality.
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Federica Sona is a senior researcher in the Law & Anthropology Department at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle/Saale (Germany). Her main areas of expertise encompass official and unofficial Islamic and Muslim laws; national and international family laws; comparison and interactions between transnational, international and national legal systems (in Western and Muslim-majority countries); Western Islām-s and European Muslim communities; cultural understanding and customary implementation of religious provisions; and sharīʿah-compliant socio-legal cultures and normative orders.
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Learn more about our 2021 eventsA
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Another Coup d’État in Sudan:
An Exploration of the Prospects of Democracy and Human Rights
UPCOMING Nov. 22
11:00am-12:15pm EST
In April 2019, a youthful pro-democracy movement succeeded in bringing down President Omar al-Bashir, a military officer who ruled the country for three decades and was accused of committing war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide by the International Criminal Court. While Sudan’s democratic transition was seen as a beacon of hope in an increasingly troubled region, that hope may soon be dashed. On Oct. 25th, just two years after the protest movement forced the establishment of a transitional government, the military has once again taken power by force.
As the pro-democracy protest movement begins to re-galvanize, and the military unleashes coercion and violence, a specter of uncertainty looms over Sudan.
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Positioned in this moment of flux, this webinar will explore the different possible outcomes that Sudan may face from the diverse vantage points of the panelists.
Sponsored by Harvard Law’s Human Rights Program and the Program on Law and Society in the Muslim World. Co-sponsored by Harvard University’s Center for African Studies and Harvard Law School’s Advocates for Human Rights, African Law Association, and Middle Eastern Law Students Association.
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RECORDING from Oct. 5
A virtual side event for the 48th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council
From mobilizing resources, to creating networks of support and emergency services, Afghan women human rights defenders have always been at the frontlines of resistance and continue to disrupt oppression and defend the rights of all within their communities. Afghan women human rights defenders speak about their demands for justice and accountability, particularly from powerful States that have been complicit in human rights abuses in Afghanistan and international institutions that have failed to meaningfully and concretely protect the rights of Afghan people.
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This event was co-organized by the Regional Coalition of Women Human Rights Defenders MENA, FEMENA, AWID, Musawah, Women Living under Muslim Law, and the Harvard Law School Program on Law and Society in the Muslim World.
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This event was co-sponsored by the Middle East Law Students Association, International Human Rights Clinic, the Program on Law and Society in the Muslim World, and HLS Advocates.
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Law and Violence in Palestine: A Conversation with Mohammed El-Kurd
EVENT Coverage from Oct. 28
Mohammed El-Kurd writes about dispossession, resistance and the Palestinian plight for liberation. Named “one of the most influential people in the world,” by TIME100, his work has been featured in numerous international outlets and he is currently The Nation’s first-ever Palestine Correspondent. Mohammed’s first collection of poems, RIFQA, is to be released in October 2021.
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Apply to be a 2022-2023 Visiting Fellow
Harvard Law School’s Program on Law and Society in the Muslim World invites applications for Visiting Fellowships for the 2022–2023 academic year. This fellowship provides opportunities for outstanding scholars and legal practitioners to undertake research, writing, and scholarly engagement on law and society in Muslim majority and minority contexts. We are particularly interested in applicants whose work focuses on human rights, women's rights, children's rights, minority rights, animal welfare and rights, constitutional law, food law, environmental law and climate change in particular, migration and refugee studies, LGBTQ issues, and related areas.
We welcome applicants with advanced degrees (e.g., JD, LLM, SJD, PhD or other comparable degree) and experienced practicing lawyers who aim to draw upon their legal experience in their Fellowship project. Fellows may spend from one month up to one academic year (excluding June-August) in residence at Harvard Law School working on an independent project. We seek applicants from a diverse range of backgrounds, academic traditions, and scholarly interests.
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