Wives and Work

Reviewed by: Anis Ahmad – Riphah International University, Pakistan

Published by: New York: Colombia University Press, 2022, 309pp. ISBN: 978-0231206891.

We live in an age of materialism in which things are measured in terms of their market value. People are rewarded for their professional services in commensuration with the hours they spent at work while in many traditional societies the value and worth of work are not measured in material terms.

The book under review examines Islamic legal discussions dealing with the concept of domestic work as a wife’s obligation. Conventionally, the matter is left to the mutual understanding of the spouses and the financial capacity of the husband to provide a domestic helper for housework. The legal literature re-examined with great diligence by the author offers a clear distinction between the legal claims and the ethical ideals of husbands and wives.