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This special issue focuses on Muslim religious-only marriages, which are marriages not recognized by state authorities but which at least one of the parties involved considers religiously valid. The practice of informal religious marriages has manifested in different parts of the world, and such marriages have become a topic of debate and intervention. In a tripartite dynamic, state authorities are involved in attempts to regulate or criminalize religious-only marriages, religious actors play a variety of roles, and the couples involved are left to navigate an increasingly controversial field. This special issue explores these issues in detail by investigating the interactions among state authorities, religious actors, and the couples themselves, and the motivations of each in their engagement with the others.The contributions to this special issue were, with one exception, presented at the two-day symposium Unregistered Muslim Marriages-Regulations and Contestations. This symposium was organized by Rajnaara Akhtar and Annelies Moors and held in April 2017 at the De Montfort University in Leicester, in conjunction with the University of Amsterdam.1 All of the papers are based on well-grounded empirical research. The authors employ a variety of methods, from participant observation, informal conversations, and semistructured interviews to discourse analysis of texts and images and social media use. They have worked with different interlocutors, including state actors, religious authorities of various standing and persuasions, ngos, and ordinary Muslims involved in these marriages. Research has been conducted both in Muslim-majority settings (Malaysia, Tunisia, and Jordan) as well as in countries where Muslims are a religious minority (Norway, England, and the Netherlands), in states that have developed a diverse range of policies on Muslim religious-only marriages, and with Muslim constituencies that differ both in terms of ethnic and national backgrounds and with respect to the nature of their religious commitment.

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This paper discusses changing marriage practices in modern-day Qatar, drawing on empirical data gathered in a sociolegal study involving interviews with individual citizens and residents about their marriage and family experiences, and with legal personnel and experts in family law. It presents a unique insight into evolving relationship behaviours occurring within and on the periphery of Qatar’s family-law framework in the context of its population make-up, historic traditions, trends in education, and globalisation. Changing practices examined include ‘late’ first marriages and ‘marrying out.’ The empirical research findings are used to analyse the link between the administrative process of obtaining permission to marry out and non-state-registered marriages, the gender imbalance in the treatment of those marrying out, and the link between child custody rights and unofficial marriages. The emerging narrative depicts couples navigating marriage laws and utilising non-state-registered ‘religious-only’ marriages as a temporary measure to overcome legal and administrative hindrances.