2013 Spring Seminar Talks
Join members of the HBI Spring Seminar on Gender, Culture, Religion, and the Law for a series of informal lunchtime talks exploring the intersection of religious law and women’s rights. Given by HBI Scholars-in-Residence and visiting researchers, these presentations of work in progress will cover topics both historical and contemporary, focusing on Jewish and Islamic religious laws and practices. A kosher lunch will be provided.
RSVP required: hbi@brandeis.edu
The HBI Project on Gender, Culture, Religion, and the Law is generously funded by a gift from the Dan Fischel and Sylvia Neil Philanthropic Fund.
Lecture Schedule
Tuesdays, 12pm - 2pm
Lieberman-Miller Lecture Hall
Hadassah-Brandeis Institute
Epstein Building, Brandeis University
515 South Street
Waltham, MA 02454
January 15:
Competing Conceptions of Personal Autonomy in Jewish and Civil Divorce,
Lisa Fishbayn Joffe, HBI Project on Gender, Culture, Religion, and the Law, Brandeis University
Lisa Fishbayn Joffe explores the intersection of Jewish law and civil law notions of gendered rights to divorce.
January 29:
New Women's Religious Roles in Judaism and Islam,
Lisa Anteby-Yemini, Aix-En Province
Anteby-Yemini explores the ways in which Ethiopian Jewish women's observance of purity rituals involving the segregation of menstruating women have been shaped by migration and integration into Israeli society.
February 12:
Sidelining Jurisprudence in Contemporary Northern Nigeria: The Case of Child Marriage (Ijbār),
Sarah Eltantawi, Harvard University
Beginning in 1999, a grassroots revolution in Northern Nigeria demanded a return to Islamic penal law. Since then, a surprising coalition of jurists and activists has argued against child marriage. This talk explores the alternate ethical system that informs their opposition to child marriage. Eltantawi focuses on how this objection is negotiated within a climate of strict constructionist Islamic law.
February 26:
Sexual Coercion of Women in Medieval Ashkenaz,
Merav Schnitzer, Tel Aviv University
Schnitzer analyzes rabbinical commentaries on the law of rape in the Jewish community of Ashkenaz from the 12th to 15th century. Her particular emphasis is on changing attitudes towards the reliability of women's evidence that they had been victims of sexual assault.
March 12:
Women's Education In Satmar And The Image Of Women,
Ilan Fuchs, HBI Project on Gender, Culture, Religion, and the Law, Brandeis University
Fuchs describes the history of hostility to the notion of the education of women among Satmar Hassidim in New York State.
March 19:
Fiqh and the Family: Shari’a, Gender, and Changing Spousal Roles,
Celene Ayat Lizzio, Brandeis University
Lizzio will look at gender and the reform of Islamic family law and will consider how contemporary intellectuals are turning toward the concept of "maqasid al-Shari'a" (the intent or objective of the law) in order to systematically pursue a reform agenda.