Muslim Marriage and Non-Marriage

The focus on the agency of women and men alike resets the discussion of these marriages, much of which had positioned women as victims. The transregional theme allows the editors to make novel observations about the malleability of Muslim marriage in different cultural and social settings. The variety of cases present a wide array of voices from different genders, classes, religious groups, and geographical settings and give the reader a good sense of how this variety of voices and settings lends complexity to the discussion of Muslim marriage. Judith E. Tucker, Georgetown University Moors and McBrien's collection dynamically displays the global diversity of Muslim marriages. They capture what makes marriages "Muslim," while documenting the vast array of experience, expediency, and agency of Muslim women and men, in the face of the state, religious institutions, and on the ground socio-political-cultural conditions. An ethnographically rich curation of lived realities. Suad Joseph, University of California, Davis A unique book that combines lucid theoretical perspectives on a variety of current "controversies" about Muslim marriages with a rich set of fine-grained ethnographic explorations of the life stories of those involved in these kinds of marriages. The intimate stories expose the very politics of "problematizing" certain marriages and marriage practices while the careful analyses unpack the stakes of those generating the controversies, whether states, political parties, religious authorities, or families. The personal experiences reveal the complex conditions of these actual marriages and let us see how individual women's personal and social circumstances, considerations, desires and even affects shape their marriage choices. Beautifully researched and sharply conceptualized, this book is sure to change the conversation. Lila Abu-Lughod, Columbia University Muslim marriage practices have evolved and changed across the Global North and South, with problematising discourses dominating the treatment of 'boundary-crossing' unregistered marriages. In this volume, leading researchers in the field draw on long-term empirical projects evidencing such practices in multiple state settings from both the North and South, providing a unique insight into evolving norms and practices and state engagement. The insights of the multiple authors, and Moors and McBrien, offer a significant contribution to our understanding of the problematising discourse and the experiences of those engaging in such marriages. Rajnaara Akhtar, University of Warwick