1. RITORNO ALLA SHARI'A E PRASSI SOCIALE: I REATI SESSUALI IN PAKISTAN.
- Author
-
Giunchi, Elisa
- Subjects
SEX crimes ,ISLAMIC law ,ISLAMIC customs & practices ,LAW enforcement ,SOCIAL history - Abstract
The author examines the enforcement of Islamic law by Pakistan's Islamic courts of appeal since the early 1980s, with particular attention to sexual offénces. The paper focuses on the litigants' attitudes towards the formal system of adjudication vis-à-vis extra-judicial ways of mediating local disputes, as well as on the role that issues of interpretation have in the judges' reasoning and verdicts. The author concludes that cases of sexual offences are usually part of complex intra-community and inter-community disputós and that, contrary to our assumptions about Oriental culture, litigants are not motivated by religious or cultural norms alone, but by the desire to further material gains. As for the judges, the discretionary powers they enjoy allow them to choose which legal school and exegetical method to adopt, with results that are highly divergent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2005