Muslim Family Law in South Africa: Paradoxes and Ironies

Abstract

The recognition of Muslim family law in South Africa is embedded in a long history of political struggle by the country's Muslim minority. With constitutional recognition for religion-based family and human rights safeguards, the proposed Muslim family law bill has landed in a quagmire of intra-Muslim disputes. The stand-off is between orthodox and ultra-orthodox Muslim clerics, the latter who find a human rights-friendly regime of Muslim family law to be antithetical to their view of religion, while orthodox and progressive Muslim groups find such accommodation to be acceptable to their religious convictions.