During the 1990’s, a group of Senegalese intellectuals proposed a new Code of the Status of the Person and the abrogation of the Family Code that had been in effect since 1973. The group’s objective was to change the political direction of Senegal by means of a debate over the Family Code and the status of women. Understanding this situation calls for examination of the relationship between Islam and politics over the longer term – and especially the relationship between the democracy question in Muslim countries and in Muslim political thought. It is also important to understand women’s rights and the status of women as constituted in Islamic discourse
