Search Results (7)

“Secret Marriage” is a category accommodating a range of arrangements that seek to conceal a marital union, typically from an existing spouse, the family of the bride or groom, a segment of the community, or the state. These contentious unions have seen an upsurge in recent times in Muslim-majority countries, and, more recently, in minority-Muslim communities in the West. This essay examines the phenomenon in minority communities using three interrelated lenses of analysis: the legal, the moral, and the socio-institutional. Taking this multi-faceted approach, in this essay, I first examine the legal doctrines of the four Sunni schools of law on the requirement of publicity and witness testimony in marriage before situating that legal discussion about contractual validity within a comprehensive analysis of the broader moral and religious legitimacy of entering into a secret union. I argue that while jurists stipulate disparate minimums for contractual validity, nearly all secret marriage arrangements are nonetheless considered invalid (fāsid), meaning they are incorrectly conducted by failing to meet the required conditions for the contract to produce its legal effects (ṣiḥḥa) and are also prohibited (ḥarām) in themselves or for their entailments, meaning contracting such a marriage is sinful and entails punishment. As I show, even as some jurists may make arguments that may seem to imply that some versions of secret marriage meet the basic conditions to make them technically valid, these same jurists nonetheless argue that such marriages are immoral, religiously deficient, unbecoming of a Muslim, and little more than a pretext for illicit sex. Apart from the theoretical question of whether a secret marriage meets the conditions of contractual validity, parties to a secret marriage in Muslim communities today further engage in a number of sins and transgressions and cause harms to spouses, children, parents, extended family, and the community that must also be reckoned with. The essay concludes with recommendations for how religious authorities can take steps towards regulating marriage in minority-Muslim communities, highlighting the need for public education on Muslim marriage practices that is embedded in a deeper religious morality centering the Sunna to counteract the dominant legalism in the Muslim community that underlies numerous contemporary dilemmas. Full article

Today, secret marriages are a known problem among Muslims, but discussions and debates are avoided. People who are unwilling to take on the responsibilities of marriage yet do not want to commit adultery, one of the major sins in Islam, practice secret marriages. However, this leads to the deprivation of rights for parties and children born in these unions. Some claim that the legal justification for secret marriages is provided by the view that the presence of witnesses and the parties to be married is sufficient for a marriage contract. Therefore, this article aims to critically examine the views of the four Sunnī legal schools on testimony (shahada) or proclamation (i’lan) in relation to marriage, and how these conditions align with the requirement for protecting the rights of all parties involved in the marriage. Upon examination, this article also will delve into unregistered marriages and illustrate how both types of marriages do not adequately establish the rights of those involved. In order to accomplish this objective, the article will use a descriptive methodology that directly refers to primary texts and certain fatwa institutions, such as the Diyanet (the Presidency of Religious Affairs in Turkey), to present the jurists’ discourses. Full article

This work investigates my family’s long-held secrets that concealed the whereabouts of my grandmother. After years of estrangement, my father discovered Ada living in a mental hospital. Memories are rarely straightforward and could only take us so far in understanding why Ada remained missing from our family for so long. My search for answers involved genealogical research and led me to access Ada’s mental patient files. This rich data source provided some troubling glimpses into Ada’s auditory hallucinations and grandiose delusions and her encounters with several mental institutions in Victoria, Australia, during the twentieth century. Critical family history approaches allow me to gain insights into the gendered power relations within her marriage and the power imbalance within families. The theme of migration is addressed through the lens of mobility when Ada relocated following her marriage and her movement between home on trial leave and several sites of care after her committal. Scholars have shown that the themes of migration and mobility are important and hold personal significance in exploring the connection between mental health and institutionalisation for our family. Here, I demonstrate how mental illness in families is stigmatised and concealed through institutionalisation and its legacy for younger generations. Full article

The Jewish ultra-Orthodox community enforces strict rules concerning its members’ way of life and demands that their identities be consistent with that of this conservative community. However, such congruence does not exist for ultra-Orthodox women who identify as lesbians. Drawing on social representation theory, this study examines the unique family structures that lesbian ultra-Orthodox women in Israel have adopted to accommodate their conflicting identities. The study employed a qualitative multiple case study design, conducting in-depth interviews with seven ultra-Orthodox lesbian women, and adopted a phenomenological approach to learn about their lived experience. The women had all married young in arranged marriages and all had children. Four of them were still married, while the other three were divorced. In all cases, however, their lesbian identity was kept hidden. The findings reveal the unique family structures these women created that allowed them to maintain their religious way of life on the surface, while remaining committed to their sexual identity in secret. The study extends the social representation theory and promotes an understanding of the multifaceted identity of ultra-Orthodox lesbian women. The findings can aid in designing interventions that can help such women cope with the secret aspects of their life. Full article

Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome (HPS) is a heterogeneous disorder combining oculocutaneous albinism (OCA) and a platelet function disorder of varying severity as its most prominent features. The genes associated with HPS encode for different BLOC- (biogenesis of lysosome-related organelles complex) complexes and for the AP-3 (adaptor protein-3) complex, respectively. These proteins are involved in maturation, trafficking, and the function of lysosome-related organelles (LROs) such as melanosomes and platelet δ-granules. Some patients with different types of HPS can develop additional complications and symptoms like pulmonary fibrosis, granulomatous colitis, and immunodeficiency. A new type of HPS has recently been identified associated with genetic alterations in the BLOC1S5 gene, which encodes the subunit Muted of the BLOC-1 complex. Our aim was to unravel the genetic defect in two siblings with a suspected HPS diagnosis (because of OCA and bleeding symptoms) using next generation sequencing (NGS). Platelet functional analysis revealed reduced platelet aggregation after stimulation with ADP and a severe secretion defect in platelet δ-granules. NGS identified a novel homozygous essential splice site variant in the BLOC1S5 gene present in both affected siblings who are descendants of a consanguine marriage. The patients exhibited no additional symptoms. Our study confirms that pathogenic variants of BLOC1S5 cause the recently described HPS type 11. Full article

Susanna Centlivre’s The Wonder: A Woman Keeps a Secret (1714) presents a model of female relations invested in queer futurity and queer temporality, disrupting the patriarchal geometry of courtship in order to provide the play’s heroines access to an alternate future grounded in their relationship with one another. Though the play ends with both women married, their relationship is central and is cemented by Violante’s marriage to Isabella’s brother, which transforms the friends into sisters. Their dedication opens up the possibility that a relationship between women might be more important than the marriages they strive for, illustrating an important intervention into the construction of plot in comedy from the early eighteenth century. The Wonder’s queer potential is developed in the language that both women use to describe their devotion and the actions that embody it. Violante and Isabella are able to expand the triangle of homosocial exchange into a more equitable square that not only allows for happy marriages but visible, loving relationships between the play’s heroines. As such, they manage to create a queer future where their relationship can remain at the forefront of their lives and rewrite the marriage plot as a means to an end. Full article

Divorce rates have been increasing around the world, and the Middle East is not immune to this reality. This pilot study investigates the phenomenological experiences of divorce for 20 Egyptian females. The study is qualitative, using in-depth interviews asking 14 questions that address different aspects of struggling marriages and post-divorce life. Five main themes were derived using a conventional approach to content analysis. The themes are: Expectations before marriage, secret life, relational dynamics, mental health, and resilience. Several sub-themes were identified in each category. The themes and subthemes are discussed. What was surprising was that many women experienced a greater sense of resilience and level of empowerment as a result of their post-divorce process. Recommendations for future research are discussed, including a replication of the study with a more stratified sample group and inclusion of men prior to developing any interventions. Full article