Lived Experience, the Qur’an, and Ethical Negotiation in Muslim Women’s Interfaith Marriages

Classical Islamic jurisprudence prohibits Muslim women from marrying non-Muslims while permitting Muslim men to marry Christians and Jews. Yet in contemporary Western contexts, many Muslim women enter interfaith marriages, raising questions about the limits of juridical authority and the dynamics of lived Islam. This paper draws on qualitative interviews with over fifty Muslim women in interfaith relationships and 10-12 American Muslim religious leaders, examining how women’s experiences engage with religious guidance. My findings show that women challenge inherited norms—e.g., managing family opposition, creating their own ethical approaches, and raising children inclusively—while navigating conflicts and reconciliation. I propose that a woman’s choice to intermarry speaks to the importance of experiential knowledge: women’s experiences with injustice, often justified through scripture, can generate new, ethically grounded engagements with the Qur’an. This study demonstrates that interfaith marriage is a site where Islamic legal norms, gendered authority, and ethical practice are contested.