ResearchingMahrin Germany: A Multidisciplinary Approach

Abstract

This article considers the legal institution of mahr in Islamic family law from three research perspectives in order to provide insights into the phenomenon's complexity, particularly with regard to current legal practices. In particular, emphasis is placed both on countries where family law is shaped by Islamic traditions (e.g., Morocco) and on countries whose legal traditions do not have a mahr counterpart (e.g., Germany). First, the social and economic function of dower will be described. As a special form of property transfer, mahr will be analyzed in its historical and present shape in theory and practice. Second, the legal conceptualization of mahr in the German legal context will be discussed. The example of Morocco serves to illustrate the changes with regard to mahr because of the process of incorporation of Islamic legal concepts into a national statutory law system. Given the Muslim diaspora, these insights are important contributions to the legal intepretation of mahr in a transnational context.

Muslim Marriage and Non-Marriage

“…There is no marriage in community of goods in Islamic law, but the husband is obliged to house his wife and provide for her and their children. The husband also must give his wife a dower (in Arabic mahr or sdaq), which provides women with some financial security (Günther, Herzog, and Müssig 2015;). The dower is legally the property of the wife and is protected by Islamic law as being hers only to do with as she pleases.…”

“…Moroccans need to register a prompt dower in the marriage contract, which is handed over before the wedding (see Mir-Hosseini 1993); there is hardly any deferred dower. Also, the most recent Moroccan family law reforms of 2004 still include the obligation to register the dower in the marriage contract to validate it (Günther, Herzog, and Müssig 2015).…”

“…A growing body of research focusses on the legal effects of mahr in the west (e.g. Fournier 2009; Günther, Herzog, and Müssig 2015;Mehdi 2003;Mehdi and Nielson, 2011), but these contributions pay little or no attention to the dower as a social practice or to how women themselves signify and act with the dower. There are, however, some studies that address how the dower may function as an identity marker in minority contexts, even if in very different settings and with different effects than that of Moroccan migrants in the Netherlands.…”