The Islamic Family Law Reform in Malaysia: An Analysis of Zainah Anwar’s Habitus and Social Capital in Advancing Women’s Right Reform
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21274/ahkam.2026.14.1.1-13Keywords:
perkawinan, hukum keluarga, pembaharuan hukumAbstract
This study aims to explain how the habitus and social capital of Zainah Anwar shaped her role in advancing Islamic family law reform concerning women's rights in Malaysia. Existing scholarship has largely examined Zainah Anwar as a thinker within Islamic feminism, focusing on her reinterpretation of religious texts, and has paid limited attention to her position as a social agent operating within a structured field of power. Employing a qualitative approach through library research, this study analyses Malaysian Islamic family law enactments, Zainah Anwar's writings and public statements, and official publications of Sisters in Islam and Musawah. The data are analysed using Pierre Bourdieu's theory of social practice through the framework of habitus, capital, and field. The study finds that her critical disposition was formed through modern education, journalistic work, and sustained involvement in women's advocacy, producing a habitus that treats religious interpretation as a contestable social product. Lacking formal religious symbolic capital, she converted cultural and social capital into symbolic recognition through collective authorship, transnational networks, and expert framing. Her practice contributed to reform less through direct legislative change than through delegitimising patriarchal interpretation and expanding the boundaries of legitimate religious discourse, positioning legal reform as a field of symbolic contestation.
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