ABSTRACT
Stipulations in the marriage contract are a means of improving the status of women in so far as they enable marital rights and duties anchored in the shaft a to be circumvented or varied. Resort to the stipulation in the marriage contract was not particularly frequent among Israeli Muslims. In the attitude of the qadis to the stipulation in the marriage contract, two diametrically opposed positions may be distinguished: a formalistic one, consonant with the Hanafi view which, as stated, negates the validity of a stipulation designed to alter the rights and obligations of the spouses; and a pragmatic view, which recognizes a stipulation as valid in so far as it corresponds to social custom. Knesset interference is likely to be particularly unwelcome in matters in which express provisions exist in the textual sources of Islamic law.
