The Division of Matrimonial Wealth in Malay Polygyny & the Codification of Culture in Malaysian Islamic Family Law

ongoing

This project is an anthropological investigation into the division of matrimonial assets in the Malaysian Islamic family law (IFL) from a socio-legal and gendered perspective. The concept of matrimonial assets is not officially recognized in classical Islamic law; rather, it is an adat (customary) tradition long practiced in the Malay Archipelago, where the dominant bilateral system of gender relations accords both spouses mutual access to, and ownership of, the resources jointly acquired during the marriage. This project will first examine the juridical processes and justifications enabling the incorporation of this provision into the IFL, thereby codifying as “Islamic” what actually originated from Malay adat. Second, it will analyze how this provision was translated into practice in the Malaysian Shari’ah judiciary, to understand how it fulfills adat’s original intention to preserve and enhance women’s economic security in precarious marriages such as polygyny. To pursue these lines of inquiry, I will conduct ethnographic and archival fieldwork in a Shari'ah court situated in the Kuala Lumpur metropolitan region. The project will include interviews of Malay couples in the process of dividing their matrimonial assets, and archival research into past polygyny applications. The ultimate aim of this research project is to assess whether the Malaysian Shari’ah system is equipped to protect the economic rights of Malay women who earn, own, and add to the acquisition of assets and circulation of resources as an equally important key economic contributor in the marriage.