Religious Law and Everyday Life: Shifting Practices of Mahr (Islamic Dower) in Legal Pluralistic Norway, 2019

This research project examines the challenges that the combination of state law and the practice of religious legal issues represent in a welfare state like Norway, where the relationship between state and religious law is being redefined. Mahr holds socio-economic importance for the individual, the couple, the family and society at large, and is entangled in the everyday life through marriage. The practice of mahr will serve as an entry into ongoing religious developments, but also the state of legal pluralism in Norway. The concept of everyday religion provides the analytical backdrop of this project, and a gateway towards the study of the many aspects connected to mahr. This project will account for current research gaps by analysing legal and religious developments in a comprehensive manner through the lenses of everyday religion and legal pluralism in Norwegian society. The added value of applying an everyday approach to the study of mahr lies in the perspectives generated on the complexities of law and religion. The project assumes a multidisciplinary approach combining theory and methods from history of religions, legal studies and gender research, merging in a new methodology studying the impact of law and religion on daily life and vice versa.

Through a triangular analysis of (1) legal texts and documents, (2) qualitative in-depth interviews with young Norwegian Muslim couples who plan to or have just married, and (3) a comparative examination of debates in Muslim minority and majority contexts, the project will generate theoretical, methodological and empirical analyses of the interplay between everyday religion and legal pluralism in the Norwegian context that until now remain unmapped. In order to fully realise what it means when religious practices are incorporated and considered in the Norwegian legal system, there is a need to understand the complex ways religion and law intersect in the everyday life.

For further information about ”Religious Law and Everyday Life: Shifting Practices of Mahr (Islamic Dower) in Legal Pluralistic Norway, 2019”, please contact the principal investigator