In 2015, Scarlet Bishara made history as the first female church court judge in an Arab country, serving in the Evangelical Lutheran Church Court of Jordan and the Holy Land in Bethlehem. In this episode of Minority Law to Go, she and host Dörthe Engelcke discuss the unique role of church courts in Palestine, the landmark 2015 family law reform that introduced equal inheritance rights for men and women, and her continuing advocacy for gender justice and equality. Scarlet reflects on the challenges of working within a religious legal system, the political pressures of life under occupation, the mixed reactions to her appointment, and the transformative impact of women serving in traditionally male-dominated courts.
Minority Law To Go is a podcast mini-series about the debates at the crossroads of law, religion, gender, and state power in the Arab region. Hosted by Dörthe Engelcke, AGYA member and acting head of the Centre of Expertise for the Law of Arab and Islamic Countries at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, the series brings leading scholars and legal practitioners into conversation. Together, they explore the lived realities of legal pluralism and the political contexts that shape them. The series grew out of the conference “Minority Law in Arab States – Governing Religious Diversity”, organized by the Arab-German Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities (AGYA) together with the Centre of Expertise for the Law of Arab and Islamic Countries at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law. The conference took place at the MPI in July 2025.
This podcast is funded by the Arab-German Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities (AGYA). The Academy stands for research across disciplines and countries. AGYA draws on financial support of the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) grant 01DL20003. The authors remain solely responsible for the content and recommendations provided in this publication, which do not reflect the positions of AGYA or any of its funding partners.
