How does change happen? Social norms, religion and Muslim family laws in the Middle East and North Africa region

This discussion paper offers a rigorous analysis of how discriminatory gender norms are produced, sustained, and contested across the Middle East and North Africa region. Bridging socio-legal studies, feminist theory and the study of religion, the paper advances a multi-layered framework for understanding how gender norms are embedded in and operate at the intersection of religion, law, state power, and lived realities.

The paper demonstrates that when it comes to faith-influenced settings, social norms cannot be analysed in isolation from the religious discourses and legal structures through which they are institutionalized. By distinguishing between divine sharia and human jurisprudence, it highlights how patriarchal interpretations gain authority and how reformist readings grounded in Islamic ethics can open new horizons for justice.

Drawing on the work of Musawah—a global movement for equality in the Muslim family—and the experience of local activists working on khul‘ divorce law reform in Egypt, the paper provides practice-oriented insights into how activists, scholars, and coalitions have successfully engaged with religious knowledge production, legal reform processes, and courts as spaces of negotiation. It offers concrete, context-sensitive lessons for transforming discriminatory norms and advancing gender equality where religion shapes social and legal norms.

This paper is part of the “UN Women discussion paper series”.