Mona Siddiqui (University of Edinburgh) will give give a series of lectures and participate in a concluding symposium. This first lecture is Can you Text a Divorce? Negotiating Women's Rights in Law and Society. Abstract Much of the practice of Islamic personal law is still located in classical jurisprudence where marriage and divorce laws are essentially viewed as performative utterances. Intention, wording and finality are fundamental to the validity of the marriage contract and the end of a contract. Texting, that most modern of communication is expression through technology but not oral utterance. Yet, recent cases in some Islamic countries shows that judges are allowing Muslim men to divorce via text. Contrary to popular perception and practice, divorce is not a simple process in jurisprudence but with the aid of texting, any possibility of ethical considerations towards the wife is being ignored.

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