An annotated bibliography of sources on the topic of:
Sharia Law, Migrant Workers, and Human Rights in the Middle East
compiled and annotated by Shreya Karadia
for the course CAS CC 204: Religion and Secularism in Spring 2015
Al-Muhairi, Butti Sultan Butti Ali. “The Position of Shari’a within the UAE Constitution and the Federal Supreme Court’s Application of the Constitutional Clause concerning Shari’a.” Arab Law Quarterly 11.3 (1996): 219-244.
This secondary source talks about the role of Sharia in the UAE Constitution. It also compares the opinions of different groups of people (for example Islamists versus a more liberal group) on Sharia’s role in government. This will help give different perspectives on my paper and also give me a basic context for how the UAE use Sharia in their legal framework.
Auwal, Mohammad A. “Ending the exploitation of migrant workers in the Gulf.” Fletcher F. World Aff. 34 (2010): 87.
This is a journal article by a social scientist and university professor who argues for the end of the kafala system. This will help me not only get a social science view of the issue, but also help to explore the implications of the termination of the sponsorship system in the UAE.
Johnson, Toni, and Lauren Vriens. “Islam: governing under Sharia.” Council on Foreign Relations. org (2013).
This is a general secondary source on Sharia law. It talks about the role of Islam in the legal framework of many Muslim countries. I used this source for background and also will use it to back up comments on the role of Sharia in my paper.
Kamrava, Mehran, and Zahra Babar. Migrant Labor in the Perisan Gulf. New York: Columbia UP, 2012. Print.
This is a secondary source that explores the lives of migrant workers in the Gulf. This text has many interviews of migrant workers and case studies that I can use to write about the social treatment of workers. There is also a small section that talks about the legal regulation of migrant workers in the UAE.
Murray, Heather E. “Hope for reform springs eternal: How the sponsorship system, domestic laws and traditional customs fail to protect migrant domestic workers in GCC Countries.” Cornell Int’l LJ 45 (2013): 461.
This source talks about the effect of the kafala system and the legal system on the migrant workers. It highlights the difficulties the workers go through but also it talks about the inequality in court between females and males. Also, it contains perspectives of locals on the issues the author brings up, which is one of the sides of that I will be comparing in my paper.
South, Tom, and Archie Bland. “Dubai Workers for British Firm Beaten by Police over Strike.” The Independent. N.p., 25 May 2014. Web. 14 Apr. 2015.
This is a newspaper article that talks about the labour strikes in Dubai last year. When I compared it to an article from a UAE newspaper on the same strike, I found some interesting differences where the UAE article said nothing about violence against the workers. The article also talks about the events that took place after the strikes, which will help me to write about the legal regulation of the workers.
The Dirty Secret Behind the NYU, Louvre, Guggenheim Projects in Abu Dhabi. Human Rights Watch. N.p., 19 Feb. 2015. Web. 14 Apr. 2015.
This is a video from the Human Rights Watch that is like a short documentary clip that contains interviews of workers that used to work on Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi. I will use these interviews and also the opinion of the Human Rights Watch researcher Nicholas McGeehan, who talks about how the government handles workers involved in strikes.
The Quran and the Hadith.
These are primary sources that I will use as background as Sharia is derived from these two texts. I will be using translations of them and quote parts of the text that I think pertain to my topic. This will help me because there are quotes that talk about the treatment of workers, which is very different from how they are actually being treated in the UAE.
United Arab Emirates. Ministry of Labour. The Protection of the Rights of Workers in the United Arab Emirates Annual Report. Ministry of State for Federal National Council Affairs, 2007. Web. 14 Apr. 2015.
This is a report that is taken straight from the UAE’s Ministry of Labour’s website. This report is a response to the HRW’s report that encouraged the UAE to change some of their labour laws. The UAE’s report talks about the legal system the workers have to go through if they have broken a labour law. This will help me in my paper because I will talk about how the workers have to go through the Ministry of Labour before anything else, depending on if the issue is work-related or not.
Vlieger, Antoinette. “Sharia on domestic workers: legal pluralism and strategic maneuvering in Saudi Arabia and the Emirates.” Journal of Islamic Law and Culture 12.2 (2010): 166-182.
This journal article talks about the issue I am addressing directly and will really help me explore the role of Sharia on migrant workers. It talks about the role of Sharia in the treatment of workers both socially and legally and it also contains the views of Emirati’s on the issue the author is pointing out.
Zubaida, Sami. Law and Power in the Islamic World. London: I.B. Tauris, 2003. Print.
This is a secondary source about law in the GCC countries, however there is also a section on Sharia and political authority. It also goes back in time and talks about Sharia’s origins. It will help me in talking about how Sharia affects power relations in the UAE between the government and the workers and between the Emiratis and the workers.