Minority Law in Arab States: Governing Religious Diversity

From 14-15 July 2025, the Institute hosted the international conference “Minority Law in Arab States – Governing Religious Diversity” organized by the Centre of Expertise for the Law of Arab and Islamic Countries under the leadership of Dr. Dörthe Engelcke and the Arab-German Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities (AGYA).

The conference broke new ground by redirecting attention to the often-overlooked family and inheritance laws of non-Muslim communities in Arab countries. It examined the complex relationship between legal autonomy and the governance of religious diversity, bringing together scholars from law, anthropology, political science, history, and Middle Eastern studies, alongside legal practitioners. The panels explored key themes such as legal pluralism, minority-state relations, gender, and inter-religious dynamics. Discussions examined the impact of colonial interventions, regional conflicts, and reform movements on the development of minority law.

The first panel “Jewish and Christian Litigants in Muslim Courts: Legal Agency, Adaptation, and Colonial Intervention,” chaired by Dr. Lena-Maria Möller (Qatar University) together with Prof. Nadjma Yassari (Swiss Institute of Comparative Law) as a discussant, revealed how Jewish and Christian communities actively shaped legal life under Islamic rule. The panelists demonstrated that minority actors were not passive recipients of Islamic law, but strategic actors. Christian leaders, as shown by Prof. Lev Weitz (Catholic University of America), created new legal texts to reinforce communal authority. Prof. Wafya Hamouda (Tanta University, Egypt) highlighted how Jewish and Christian women—often successfully—used Islamic courts to pursue family and financial claims. Dr. Ari Schriber (Utrecht University) documented how Jewish merchants crafted legal workarounds to Islamic bans on interest, reflecting both legal fluency and economic agency.

The first conference day closed with a keynote by Prof. Maya Mikdashi (Rutgers University, USA) in which she introduced the concept of sextarianism, a powerful lens to understand the entanglement of law, sex, gender, and state power in Lebanon.

The second panel “Law-Making and Adjudicating Christian Family Law: Judges’ and Practitioners’ Perspectives from Jordan and Palestine,” chaired by Dr. Dörthe Engelcke, brought together judges from ecclesiastical courts to discuss the application of Christian personal status laws in Jordan and Palestine, the functioning of church courts, and the difficulties of legal reform. Salameh Bishara (Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL)) gave an overview of the 2015 reform process of the Personal Status Law of the Evangelical Lutheran Community in Jordan and the Holy Land, while Judge Scarlet Bishara (Court of First Instance, ELCJHL) reflected on its importance for advancing gender justice. Judge Christine Faddoul (Greek Orthodox Court of Appeal, Amman) discussed the new family law issued by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem in October 2023, the process behind its adoption, and its most notable legal provisions. Judge Bassam Shahatit (Court of First Instance of the Greek Melkite Church, Jordan) elaborated on the significance and the motivations behind the new draft inheritance law for all Christian communities in Jordan. All panelists also reflected on the role of women in the judiciary and the effects of regional conflict on the functioning of church courts.

The third panel “The Intersection of Law, Religion, and Gender: Inheritance and Legal Pluralism in Egypt,” chaired by Dr. Dörthe Engelcke, explored the contested issue of inheritance norms for Christian communities in Egypt and whether they are legally required to apply Islamic law or enjoy legal autonomy. Lawyer and activist Hoda Nasrallah (Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights) reflected on her advocacy and legal work regarding Christian autonomy in inheritance matters, drawing on her personal experience when successfully appealing a ruling that had applied Islamic inheritance law to the division of her late father’s estate. Prof. Gianluca Parolin (Aga Khan University, UK) contextualized a recent Court of Cassation ruling on the application of inheritance rules to Muslims and non-Muslims alike, critically examining the Court’s reasoning, its implications for legal pluralism, and the broader trajectory of minority rights in Egyptian law. Dr. Nora El Bialy (University of Hamburg) and Ahmed Fouad (British University in Egypt) identified crucial factors preventing the adoption of more gender-egalitarian inheritance rules through an analysis of Court of Cassation rulings from 1952-2024, namely cultural factors and patriarchal biases—rather than law or religion.

The fourth panel “Minority Law and Contested Authority: The Interplay of Conflict, Sectarianism, and Identity Formation in Iraq,” chaired by Dr. Hanna Pfeifer (Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy, University of Hamburg) together with Prof. Mujtaba Isani (Quaid-e-Azam University, Pakistan) as a discussant, explored the growing fragmentation of personal status law in Iraq, which is increasingly shaped by sectarian affiliation. Prof. Harith Al-Dabbagh (University of Montreal) analyzed the implications of this expanding legal fragmentation, demonstrating that such an intensified pluralism poses significant challenges to the resolution of internal conflicts of law and the advancement of legal equality. Shéhérazade Elyazidi (affiliate MPI Hamburg) focused on the 2008 Kurdish Personal Status Law as a landmark moment in Iraqi Kurdistan’s history redefining family structures, gender roles, and communal identity and shed light on the dynamics of gender reform, identity politics, and federalism. Prof. Ayad Yasin Husein Kokha (Salahaddin University Erbil) and Faraz Firouzi Mandomi (University of Hamburg) examined Yazidi family law in Iraq and the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq and particularly the interplay between legal pluralism, minority rights, and judicial practice.

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Images: © Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law / Anja Hell-Mynarik