Women's Studies and Sexuality

"* Preface *:

What makes laws endure or change? When a law changes, how does a tradition of legal interpretation justify the innovation in light of its legal precedents and foundational texts? What is the function of the reasons given for laws? What relationship does law bear to social values? These interrelated questions fall under the heading of philosophy of law, yet it is mainly through the study of history that they can be probed. Answering these questions in different cultural and historical settings is a prerequisite for developing a general theory of law, for it makes distinguishing universal elements from culturally-specific parameters possible. In particular, a culturally specific feature of Islamic law is its religious character. One may ask, therefore, whether the fact that Muslim legal traditions invoke sacred authority makes an essential difference to the way the questions posed above are answered. In other words, does sacred law operate in a fundamentally different way from secular law? This book explores these questions through a study of the largest legal tradition in Islam, namely the Hanafi school of law.

The book begins by creating a general model of juristic decision making that describes any legal tradition, Islamic or not, in terms of a number of parameters. It does not presuppose that all legal traditions are identical, for the parameters in the model may vary from one tradition to another.  [continued]"""""""

This paper analyzes the judicial practice regarding homosexuality in two countries, Egypt and Lebanon. There is not a law against homosexuality in Egypt, but male homosexuals are punished according to art. 9.c of law 10/1961, which criminalizes the habitual practice of male prostitution. On the contrary in Lebanon, art. 534 of the Penal Code clearly criminalizes «against nature sexual acts», though, homosexuality is proceeding toward a slow but observable normalization in this country. It is clear that still homosexual acts are criminalized in both countries, but the approach is quite different: while in Egypt all the actors in the legal field adhere to a dominant discourse which focuses on the assumption that homosexuality is a perversion, in Lebanon competitive discourses are emerging, thanks to Ḥelem and other groups whose members define themselves as homosexuals and have a human-rights approach, contributing to transform the discourse on homosexuality in the Middle East.

This volume provides an authoritative collection of freshly translated and annotated canonical and classic texts on sex, marriage, and family from Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Confucianism, and Buddhism. Designed to introduce the rich family teachings of the world religions in and on their own terms, the reader includes differing and enduring genres of text – legal, theological, poetic, and liturgical – from the founding eras of these traditions until early modern times. The texts for each tradition are selected and arranged with an eye to their usefulness for comparison with texts from other religions.