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Domesticating Islam: Sexuality, Gender, and the Limits of Pluralism

In the contemporary West, it seems that discussions of Islam are in danger of becoming less rather than more informed, clouded by stereotype, and prone to fundamental misunderstanding. Nowhere is this more apparent than in conversations about “Islamic” or “Muslim” law, which sensationalistic media often equate with dour-faced mullahs chopping the hands off of petty criminals and throwing burkas over the heads of hapless women. 1 The reality of Islamic jurisprudence, like that of Islam more broadly, is both more complex and more banal. Just as most Muslims go about their days in peace, concerned with the mundane aspects of their lives, so too most Islamic law concerns itself with questions of marriage and divorce, inheritance, and the best path to a pious life. This is well demonstrated in two excellent recent ethnographies on Islamic law: John R. Bowen’s Islam, Law, and Equality in Indonesia: An Anthropology of Public Reasoning and Michael G. Peletz’s Islamic Modern: Religious Courts and Cultural Politics in Malaysia.