The Muslim Family Law Index (MFL-I)

measures the extent to which Muslim Family Laws (MFLs) comply with specific human/women’s rights and the rule of law and standards. The MFL-I assigns country/year scores ranging from 0 to 100. The higher the score, the more reformed the national MFL system; hence greater adherence to human/women’s rights and the rule of law.

A Global Longitudinal Overview of Muslim Family Law Reforms

Muslim Family Law Database

Access to national MFL legislations for all MFL-applying countries in the world.

Data Visualization

Visually explore associations between the MFL-I and other socio-economic, political and gender-related variables.

Methodology

Learn more about the MFL-I methodology.

The MFL-I, and its sub-indices (Substantive Reform Index, Procedural Reform Index, and Exit Rights Index) covering 43 countries from the 1920s through 2016, aim to enable researchers to conduct cross-national longitudinal analyses of MFL systems.

Illustration by Tahira Rifath

MFL-I in a Snapshot

Until now there has been no systematic way to measure spatio-temporal differences across different legal systems that implement MFLs.

We’re changing that.

MFL-I Key Findings

Fifty-three countries (35 Muslim-majority, 18 Muslim-minority) formally integrate Muslim Family Laws (MFLs) into their legal systems and enforce them through state (religious or civil) courts.

The average MFL-I score rose from 22 in 1946 to 39 in 2016. In other words, MFLs have become more human/women’s rights and the rule of law compliant over time. As of 2016, the three top-ranking countries on the index are Mali, Senegal, and Ghana. The bottom three are Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, and Oman (tied with the UAE).

On average, MFL-I scores have been higher in former French colonies than in former British colonies or non-Arab Muslim-majority countries than in Arab states.

Among the MFL-applying regions, Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest average MFL-I score, followed by South/South East Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa.

Muslim-majority and Muslim-minority states have adopted different approaches to reform MFLs. Muslim-majority states preferred substantive reforms, while Muslim-minority governments focused more on exit rights.

The data suggest that the degree of reform in MFL positively correlates with democratization, secularism, and international law friendliness.

Similarly, the degree of reform is positively associated with women’s political participation, the strength of legal protections against domestic violence, CEDAW tenure (years lapsed since the ratification of CEDAW), and abortion rights.

The degree of MFL reform is inversely correlated with natural resource rents (measured as % of GDP) and discrimination against religious minorities.

In Muslim-minority states, there is a negative correlation between the level of reform in majority communities’ family laws and the degree of reform in MFLs.