ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the discourse of Internet fatwas. Fatwa relating to women and gender relations and its potential implications for international family law norms within a plural Islamic legal tradition. The chapter explains an increasing access to the Internet challenges historical conceptions of legitimacy surrounding the legislative prerogative of state and governments as well as regulatory norms arising from governmental and governance functions, particularly those enacted in the name of Islam. A 'new' cyberspace regulatory mechanisms serve as a global Muslim space. The chapter highlights the diversity of issues, line of questioning and responses from Internet muftis. The fatwas brings a fluidity into relief by using language and terminology that may be interpreted as discriminatory by some and protective and/or corrective by others. Fatwas explores the nature of questions posed by Muslims - mostly Muslim women in the diasporic and increasingly globalized world - and responses offered on these websites.
