From victimhood to empowerment: Muslim women's narratives in the Shari'a courts of Jerusalem and Taibe

This study features the voices of women who sued their husbands in the Shari'a courts, revealing the empowerment that resulted from learning their legal rights. The stories of some two hundred Palestinian Muslim women who appealed to the Shari'a courts in Jerusalem and Taibe during the years 2000-2003 formed the basis of this study. The women came to the courts to claim material support (nafaqa) from their husbands and to demand child support (hadane). Four major reasons why these women sued their husbands in court emerged from their stories, revealing familial, social, economic and even political circumstances that impinged on their lives.