Korte beschrijving

Little is known about the (para)legal practices of European Muslims. This dissertation studies women’s rights in the context of family disputes within Belgian Muslim families. Based primarily on the analysis of interview narratives, its main goal is to better understand the emergence of rights consciousness in this context, so as to allow for an empirically grounded discussion of the relationship between human rights, gender and legal pluralism. The most important challenge in terms of human rights was found to be the non-take up of legally protected rights. The research found that the harmonisation of their multiple subject positions is a key factor enabling believing Muslim women to self-position as rights-bearing persons and make (legal) claims. This means that they need to see themselves not only as rights-bearing citizens, but also as good Muslimas, whose claims can be justified by religious norms. Access to (normative) discourses endorsing this view is crucial.