This chapter sheds light on the family law debate in Palestine following the establishment of the
Palestinian Authority (1994). It elaborates on the public debate and political contestation over attempts
to reform the ‘Islamic’ family law during the second half of the 1990s. It describes and analyzes the
various positions, articulations and styles of argumentation adopted by many actors involved in the
debate. In Palestine, as in other Muslim-majority countries, diverging assumptions about the role of the
shar’ia, Islam and gender were put forward as expressions of the ‘social will’ that each group claimed to
represent. The paper analyzes the deep divisions that split Palestinians over conceptualizing the desired
gender relations organized by the reformed family law, including its procedures and institutional
organization
