Events Calendar

We are proud to announce the official launch of African Feminist Studies (AFS) at UCT. Over the past 2 decades, many would have engaged the Department in its earlier forms, as Gender Studies, and will also know the African Gender Institute (AGI).

In Islamic Law khul’ is a process through which a wife returns her mahr and terminates her marriage contract. However, the degree of a wife's autonomy in khula has remained a matter of argument.

In Zanzibar’s kadhi courts, khuluu(<Ar. khul’) is used primarily as a judicial mechanism for ending a marriage when a judge determines a wife to be responsible for the breakdown of the marriage. Zanzibari women rarely file for khuluu because it is expensive and is associated with a woman’s failure in her marriage. In South Africa, khula (<Ar. khul’) has been in practice since the sixties, becoming more prominent recently. While most judicial bodies adopt an approach that makes khula operate much like talaq, requiring on a husband's consent, others and women's organisations have offered alternatives interpretations, enabling a wife's autonomous exit from marriage.

Erin Stiles' ethnographic work on khula in Zanzibar, and collaboration on khula practice in global context will open the discussion on how current debates are evolving. Mr. Abdus Samad Abdul Kader will be talking about his work with Khula, which began in 1967. Fatima Seedat will be in conversation with Erin Stiles and Abdus Samad Abdul Kader on khula practices in South Africa, developing a further discussion on gendered legal subjectivity in Muslim marriage and divorce law.