ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the application of Islamic family law with regard to custody and custody rights in the Gaza city shari'a courts. In this context, it is important to emphasize the fact that unlike legislation, which purports clarity and universality, social relations are full of ambiguities, inconsistencies, and discontinuities. In the shari'acourt, litigants often search for such gaps of indeterminacy, ambiguity, or uncertainty in the interplay of codified law, social customs, and the multi-referential framework of judges, in order to find space to express and materialize their needs and interests. In organizing custody rights, the BPSR reflects a particular world-view regarding the status of the person: Gender, age, lineage, religion and morality are all important, but gender is the fundamental axis along which custody rights and responsibilities are distributed. In litigation over custody, the legal text operates in a social context in which various complex webs of relations determine the outcome of the case.
