N. KRYLOVA, Doctor of Historical Sciences

"At home, they (former students of Soviet universities, married to Russian women. - N. K.), nevertheless, observed the Muslim traditions of attitude towards women... Although, on the one hand, it seems that a woman has the right to vote, but in the family she usually has her own half in the house, and she does not have the right to interfere in any decisions. The mother actually reigns there. They are completely subordinate to the husband's mother, that is, their mother-in-law. And they (the Russians - N. K.) were treated quite harshly. And when they had some desires, for example, to go somewhere ... to the city-after all, Cairo is a big city, there is a lot of entertainment there - there was a very negative reaction from my husband's family. They were told: "You forget everything that was known in Russia, you are now married women. Just say thank you that we don't encourage you to cover your face." In Egypt, the "Halabiization" of the female population has increased in recent years. And if in 1991 about 60% of female students of higher educational institutions wore European clothes and about 40% - traditional Arabic, their hair was covered (but this is always mandatory), now ...50-50 and maybe even more than 50% of female students wear traditional Arabic clothing. That is, at the domestic level, there is such a re-traditionalization."

(From the author's interview with the deputy head of the Department. Director of the Institute of Africa of the Russian Academy of Sciences I. Abramova)

According to the Consular Service Department. (BCS) The majority of women who intermarry with citizens of African countries, citizens of the former USSR or the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union, are Russian. As for the zones of their settlement on the African continent as a whole, according to statistics of the same Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, now Russian women live in 52 African countries; almost 60% of them are the wives of immigrants from North Africa, the main Islamic belt of the continent.¹

This circumstance prompted the author to acquaint the reader with some features of the social and legislative practice of the Maghreb countries in relation to foreign citizens who enter into mixed marriages with citizens of North African states.

And in this regard, first of all, we are interested in the problem of acculturation through marriage in modern Islam, and in particular the problem of adaptation of Russian women to the world of an African spouse who professes Islam, an extremely important component of the stage of Russian women's life that takes place in the culture of a Muslim husband (if not in the sense of participation in everyday life, referred to as the "Muslim environment").

Regarding this issue in its socio-cultural context (the legal components of Sharia law proper are exhaustively analyzed in the works of modern Orientalists and Arabists ²), I note that, according to Muslim concepts, a woman is not an independent creature, but a creature born to belong to a man. Moreover, discrimination (from the point of view of a European) begins from the very birth of a girl - a fact that is already negative in itself in the Islamic perception. Subsequently, it manifests itself in a different approach to raising children of different sexes, as well as at all subsequent stages of a woman's life cycle. For her, the main life task becomes marriage, the birth and upbringing of children, and the life ideology is submission and unconditional submission to her husband.

On the contrary, in boys with children-

* Galabiya (in Arabic, djellaba) is a national dress characteristic of a large part of Africa, which is a long tunic-like shirt, which modern Arab women began to wear under the influence of Islamization. This" fashion " gradually penetrated into the North African countries. (Author's note)

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the consciousness of superiority is cultivated, its future role as the owner, the continuer of the family, which in time should not only provide material support for a woman, but also mediate in her interaction with the outside world.

One of the most conservative principles of the Muslim social doctrine in its "female dimension" is generally recognized as the institution of seclusion, the observance of which is a matter of honor for the whole family, and the external symbolic attribute remains the veil - the subject of ongoing discussions between supporters of preserving traditional Islamic values and modernists, as well as scientists, public figures, politicians. To this day, safely hidden in the bosom of the family hearth, a woman in an Islamic marriage often becomes a kind of privatized object of private life, something forbidden, tightly controlled from the outside, completely dependent on the will of a man.

TRADITIONAL ISLAMIC MODEL OF MARRIAGE AND FAMILY RELATIONS

In the mid-1990s, a curious trend was observed in Ivory Coast, which was manifested in the relationship between indigenous black males and young Lebanese women living in this country, which some local media considered a manifestation of racism. In the past few decades, people from the Middle East have indeed settled in this country and neighboring states, but mixed marriages between Lebanese and Africans are rare. But not for reasons of racial hatred. Eastern traditions are too strong in the minds and daily practices of the fathers and brothers of potential brides, who tightly control and jealously protect them with the best of intentions: to keep the recluse intact until marriage. Practices of marital and sexual relations in Ivory Coast, especially in the capital Abidjan, are very diverse (polygamy, levirate*, premarital affairs, etc.), so there were cases of fist fights between relatives and the applicant, as well as direct imprisonment of women in the walls of homes.

A woman's private life (including sex) in the Muslim interpretation is based on such Quranic tenets as honor, chastity, modesty, elevated to the rank of almost uncompromising requirements, which are the basis for strict control of society over its members. Let us turn again to the interview with Irina Abramova, as it illustrates attempts, albeit not intentionally, but still violations of these Quranic precepts by Russian wives:

"Family relations were getting worse all the time. They are still educated girls, from Moscow, they are used to something completely different, and they had to stay at home all the time and do housework. They had no right to work. That is, in fact, they have the right, as I know, to work, but you need the consent of your husband. And the husband's consent, of course, was not. And this life did not suit them at all. Then they started ... some scandals, shouting, because they were trying to protect their rights, and they were told that they were absolutely powerless and should obey their husband and mother-in-law."

The system of traditional Muslim upbringing requires a woman to observe such mandatory norms of social behavior as, for example, lowering her eyes when meeting a man, hiding not only her body and head, but also jewelry under her clothes, moving silently, not leaving the territory of her home without permission, performing ritual ablutions, and much more. according to the precepts set forth (first of all) in Surah "Women" (IV) of the Qur'an. As for the actual intimate relations (no matter how diverse the customs and rituals adopted in various social spheres of the Islamic world as a whole are), according to the Koranic statement and the official position of most societies in this cultural and religious zone, all issues related to sex only find their legal and unique meaning for a woman in marriage permission. Naturally, the Qur'anic injunctions governing sexual relations prohibit adultery, adultery, and incest (incest). It is interesting to note in this regard that the culture of "hijab" itself does not bring up sexual peace in men. On the contrary, the researchers emphasize here the direct effect of the psychological formula "forbidden fruit is sweet": deprived of the ability to see faces and bodies

* A custom requiring a younger brother to marry the widow of a deceased older brother. (Approx. ed.)

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For example, Muslim men are more stressed by aggressive sexuality than representatives of cultures with less strict prohibitions against women.³

Of course, the Maghreb researcher A. Bukhdiba points out, over the centuries, various social strata have developed their own special attitude to the traditional Islamic model of ethics of gender relations. However, any society (and the Islamic world is no exception) in reality is always more diverse in the types of sex. The Maghreb tradition condemns this, and society turns a blind eye, but these issues are almost always surrounded by a wall of social silence.⁴

Finally, it is necessary to recognize the obvious fact that the youth of the Islamic regions of Africa (as well as its other cultural and historical zones) it is increasingly breaking out of the framework of this unified and generally accepted model, and is increasingly focused on other world models of marital and sexual relations, mainly European ones.

On the other hand, it is the concepts of chastity and honor, based on the postulates of the Koran, that continue to shape the worldview of the new generation, form an indispensable element in the education of its representatives, thereby realizing the complex relationship between socio-cultural innovations and the value-cultural traditions of certain social groups - ethnic groups, classes, generations. Our compatriot (Lyuba) notes:

"One source says that our marriage to Said (Luba's first Somali husband. Today, she has a second marriage and also with a Somali. - N. K.) he considers failed, because Christianity and Islam are different cultures. They don't fit together... Here in Somalia, the education of women greatly enhances their status and freedom, I think. That's why they forgive me a lot."

Let us now try to consider the situation in the civil law aspect. As is well known, legislation in the field of family and marriage in the countries of the African continent is very diverse and was formed, on the one hand, under the influence of the local historical and cultural tradition and the associated system of customary law, on the other-were (and in some cases continue to be) under the influence of the norms of European law, thus forming, a bizarre (often internally conflicting or competing) interweaving of customary law, the religious marriage system, and modern state legislation ⁵. The norms of behavior and morality are often determined by the traditional religious and legal system of the population, which still plays an important role in regulating family and marriage relations, including with non-believers. This is particularly evident in the North African region, in countries with an Islamic tradition, where, as is well known, views on marriage, family and family life are strictly regulated by the principles of Muslim dogma, law and ethics provided for in the Koran. At the same time, the almost universal ignorance of Africa is burdened for Russian women⁶, who marry residents of African countries of the Islamic belt, are almost completely unaware of the Muslim legal culture in general and of Sharia as a universal set of norms of Muslim behavior - confessional and secular - which is particularly strict in the system of marriage and family relations and in matters of inheritance. Let us examine this problem using the examples of two countries-the Islamic Republic of Mauritania (IWW) and the Republic of Tunisia (TR).

MIXED MARRIAGES AND THE TRADITIONAL RELIGIOUS AND LEGAL SYSTEM

Although the sharia law in Mauritania has been the basis of legislation relatively recently (since the early 1980s), it now regulates almost all aspects of the social, family and private life of its citizens.⁷ In addition, customary law (adat)plays an important role in Moorish family relations⁸. The marriage ceremony itself among the Muslims of Mauritania does not have the usual solemn character for a Russian compatriot. This is how one of our respondents, who has lived in Nouakchott for over 14 years, describes and comments on this event:

"This procedure is usually very modest here. Marriage is registered at home or in a mosque, in the presence of the closest relatives. Written certification of marriage is not necessary; it is sufficient that two male witnesses are present at the ceremony

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or one man and two women. Their role in marriage is essentially limited to their formal presence during this ritual, when the groom's parents pay the bride's father a monetary ransom, and the cleric reads out certain chapters of the Koran and proclaims the terms of the contract three times... If a Muslim man and a Christian woman are engaged in a religious marriage, then their marriage contract (or contract) includes a minimum amount of ransom; or the contract may not be concluded at all... By the way, when entering into a marriage between a Muslim and a Muslim woman, only Muslims should be allowed as witnesses; Jews and Christians are allowed as witnesses only in exceptional cases, when a Muslim marries the daughter of a "recipient of the Book", i.e. a Christian or a Jew. " ⁹

As for mixed marriages, they have a special place in the legal system of Islam. The Koran and other fundamental Islamic documents specifically define the conditions under which marriages with representatives of other religions are permissible. Referring to numerous quotations from the Qur'an, directly and indirectly devoted to marriage, dividing humanity into believers and infidels, and clarifying the boundaries between "pure" and "impure", which separates Muslims and non-Muslims, M. Arcun, a well-known French professor of Islamic studies, notes that even at the time of the Qur'anic revelations, people knew that the legitimacy of each person in the Qur'anic world is not limited to the marriage is related to the level of" purity " in the religious sense ¹⁰. It should be noted that the appearance of prohibitions and permits in the legal system governing mixed marriages, as a rule, was associated with specific historical conditions. In some cases, Islam categorically prohibits marriages between representatives of other faiths, while in others, on the contrary, it supports them. Islam does not tolerate marriages between Muslims and pagans (2: 220-221).

Sharia law applies differently to marriages with people who profess Christianity and Judaism. When entering into a marriage with representatives of these religions, a Muslim must comply with the same conditions as in a purely Muslim marriage union. At the same time, Muslim marriage with Christian or Jewish women is permissible only in one direction - between a Muslim man and a "woman of the Book". Marriage of a Muslim woman with a Christian or Jew is excluded. In our case, there are practically no conflicts here, because the vast majority of mixed marriages are between an African Muslim and a Russian Christian (or "atheist", which will be discussed separately). If, however, a Muslim woman commits such an apostate act, she may be imprisoned in order to " reflect on her errors." This is because, according to local interpreters of sharia law, it is believed that a man with unlimited power in the family will eventually be able to convert his wife to his faith. Such a" religious evolution " of faith is strongly encouraged by Muslim morality and absolved of sins.

For the same reason, Islam is completely intolerant of the marriage of a Muslim woman with a gentile. Finally, marriages with atheists are generally prohibited. Thus, marriage unions of Mauritanians with Soviet/Russian citizens, concluded in the former USSR or the current Russian Federation, do not have legal force on the territory of Mauritania (even if they are registered in full compliance with Soviet/Russian law), are not officially registered and are considered as cohabitation. True, by their national character, Mauritanians are tolerant in matters of religion, so public opinion, as a rule, recognizes Russian-Moorish mixed marriages de facto.

Many works are devoted to the specifics of the Muslim marriage union "from the inside", the history and traditions of social behavior of men and women in the world of Islam, the lifestyle, morals and psychology, and the rules of behavior of a married woman in Muslim society.¹¹ Let me just remind you that polygamy (polygamy) in its most common form-polygamy (polygyny) - is the most characteristic feature of Muslim marriage. The Qur'an allows a Muslim to marry four women at the same time ("...marry those who please you, two, three, or four women." Qur'an 4: 3). This provision of the Qur'an is considered the sacred foundation of polygamous Muslim marriage. Although in modern Mauritanian (and in general North African) reality, this benefit of sharia law is not enjoyed by all men (both under the influence of democratic forces that condemn polygamy among employees, including the majority of specialists trained in Russia, and for economic reasons that often do not allow a man to financially support several women at the same time women). At the same time, the social doctrine of Islam, which regulates gender inequality in the Muslim family, also caused the dependent position of a woman on her husband during divorce. It is here that male "autocracy" manifests itself in its true sense.

MUSLIM-STYLE DIVORCE (MAURITANIA)

Perhaps the main feature of Sharia divorce is that the initiative almost always comes from the husband. Divorce is considered a unilateral action, which mainly comes from and is initiated by the will of a man. And upon the dissolution of the marriage union, he enjoys unlimited rights. For example, he can give divorces to his wives according to his usmo-

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without declaring the reason, at any time. (According to the archive materials of the Russian Foreign Ministry's DCS, such cases-although isolated - also occurred in the colonies of our compatriots permanently residing in African countries. ¹²) And the consequences of Muslim divorce for women are extremely difficult, both in moral and economic terms. And this is not to mention the difficulties that she has when starting a new family, especially if she is a foreigner.

In the divorce procedure, again, the advantages are reserved for the man, who, according to one Russian woman, a direct participant in the divorce process, needs, without any explanation, to tell his wife three times: "You are not my wife" - and the divorce is already considered valid. In other words, an oral statement is enough for a man to terminate the marriage.

It is not possible to list all the features of the Muslim-style divorce process in a given volume, since there are many nuances (although almost all of them emphasize the anti-feminist nature of the procedure). I will only note that the Muslim legislation still recognizes certain reasons that allow a woman to take the initiative to terminate a marriage. These include: the husband's apostasy (or acceptance of a different faith); his prolonged absence (the terms vary); the presence of some physical disabilities of the spouse that he hid before marriage.

In this regard, I would like to draw attention to several interesting points that have become part of the practice of Moorish Muslim law and are directly related to the case of Afro-Russian marriage under study.

Our compatriots who have registered their union with Mauritanians in their homeland sometimes take advantage of the Sharia provision prohibiting a Muslim from marrying an atheist. In situations where women themselves intend to divorce an IWW citizen, they declare in court that they concealed their atheistic beliefs during the marriage, after which the judge immediately declares the marriage invalid. (Even so, children born from this union are more likely to stay with their fathers and are considered citizens of Mauritania.) However, the Mauritanian still has a "loophole" here: he can apply to a secular court (Mauritania still has a kind of dual legislation), which will make a corresponding decision, guided by the now norms of French law.

Property issues related to the dissolution of a foreign woman's marriage to a Mauritanian citizen are also resolved on the basis of Sharia law. And again, the peculiarities of the status of a Russian woman who has only entered into a marriage with a Mauritanian in her homeland, which is legally invalid in Mauritania, give the former in the event of divorce certain advantages over a Muslim woman who is getting divorced. The fact is that upon termination of a Muslim (religious) marriage, a divorced woman, as a rule, cannot claim any part of the jointly acquired property, except for her personal savings, income, and gifts from her husband. If we are talking about the marriage of a Russian woman with a Mauritanian, concluded in Russia, then the Muslim court, not recognizing such a marriage and considering it a form of cohabitation by mutual consent (partnership), recognizes the woman's right to jointly acquired property. The application for termination of cohabitation in a Mauritanian court is not considered in the nature of a divorce case, but is considered as a civil property claim. If a woman proves that she had her own income, which she transferred to her cohabitant, or that some property was purchased at her expense, then in principle the court can decide to allocate her some part of it or pay compensation. After a divorce, according to the established practice, which is not reflected in official legal documents, foreign women can live in Mauritania for a long time on a national passport, which is marked with an annual police mark. She can obtain Mauritanian citizenship no earlier than after 5 years of residence in the IWW.

CODE OF PERSONAL STATUS AND WOMEN'S RIGHTS (TUNISIA)

The areas of law that govern marriage and family relations in Tunisia bear a tangible imprint of traditional Muslim ideas and Quranic postulates, although the problems of the legal status of women, the legislative consolidation of their equal rights (as well as the women's issue in general), unlike other Arab countries, are quite different.

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North African countries have developed quite noticeably here. These features should be taken into account when considering the legal status of Russian women married to Tunisians.

The Personal Status Code13, ^adopted in 1956, established, among other things, the basic principles of the emancipation of Tunisian women at the State level. The personal inviolability and human dignity that he proclaimed were reinforced by a number of measures for women, including: the abolition of polygamy (non-compliance with this requirement was punishable by law); the establishment of a legal divorce granted by the husband to the wife, and the official granting of the right to divorce to both spouses; permission for the mother to have custody of a minor child in etc. The Personal Status Code, which has existed for half a century, is constantly updated with amendments and changes made in accordance with the country's legislation.

Tunisian legislation governing the legal status of women addresses six basic civil states in which a woman can live at various times in her life: a woman as a bride, as a wife, as a mother, as a divorced woman, as a guardian, and as a worker. Let's focus on those of the statuses of a woman who is related to a foreign woman married to a Tunisian.

Omitting the general provisions of the Tunisian rules of marriage (they are in many ways similar in form to the Moorish ones described above), we only note that under Muslim law, the groom is obliged to give the bride a "dowry". This provision is reproduced in the new version of the Personal Status Code (Article 12), although the amount of the "dowry" is not specified (it may be purely symbolic), but it always becomes the personal property of only the spouse (Tunisian laws also include gifts and income from her work in the concept of "the spouse's own property"). employment or business retained by her in the event of divorce)¹⁴.

As for the actual marital rights and obligations of a foreign woman, they are defined in article 23 of the Personal Status Code, and almost all the provisions are taken from the Koran. Despite the fact that the new version of this article formally grants the spouse equal rights with her husband15 (the old version of this article (Section 3) required the wife to obey her husband in almost everything), in the event of legal conflicts, for example, when a Muslim is married to a non-Muslim woman or when a case is considered in court, the sharia- still plays a significant role.

Brought up overwhelmingly in the spirit of socialist gender equality, Russian wives of North Africans rather painfully perceive the legislative consolidation of the headship of the spouse, subordination to him as the head of the family, which inevitably leads to intra-family conflicts, often ending in divorce.¹⁶ However, as the practice of Russian consular institutions on the ground shows, there is an opportunity to balance this situation in a certain way. Thus, Article 11 of the Personal Status Code provides that persons entering into a marriage may enter into other types of agreements along with the marriage contract, which would specify certain features of this marriage. Unfortunately, in practice, this article is rarely used and incompetently. Although it is not without common sense to fix in these documents (so significant, from the point of view of the legal status of a foreign wife) such issues as employment, choice of place of residence, jointly acquired property, etc. For example, a Tunisian husband is the head of the family and has the right to prohibit his wife from working. On the basis of the above-mentioned article, it would be possible to fix her "right to work" in the marriage contract or supplements to it. Tunisian legislation in the field of economic and social law has also taken a step forward. The Code of Obligations and Contracts expands the scope of sharia law governing women's property rights and gives them full rights to enter into contracts and contracts in the field of property relations.-

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carry, buy, sell, and dispose of your property.

The same applies to the place of residence, which in principle determines the husband. But again, a foreign spouse who does not want to follow her husband to Tunisia, for example, can specify this right in advance or determine a specific place of residence in Tunis itself. Thus, it is possible to fix at the legal level quite significant real obligations of the husband towards his wife ¹⁷.

Without being able to discuss in detail here the issue of property and non-property consequences of the termination of a foreign woman's marriage to a Tunisian (both in the case of divorce and the death of a spouse), we note that in general, local legislation regulating the legal rights of a divorced woman (by the way, there is practically no distinction between a Tunisian and a citizen of another country) considers the latter in two statuses-the actual divorced woman and the divorced woman-the owner of the right of guardianship. In this regard, I would like to draw attention to several circumstances related to the fate of children after a divorce that took place in a mixed family.

Until 1966, the country had a provision that gave priority to the mother, regardless of whether she was Tunisian or foreign. Currently, the local legal practice has a very vague wording "interests of the child". So, in the case of divorce, custody is given to one of the ex-spouses or a third person, while taking into account the interests of the child himself. However, if the mother becomes a guardian, she is fully responsible for the child's education, health, recreation, travel, as well as financial expenses (this is stated in the new Article 67 of the Personal Status Code, which now gives the mother the opportunity, depending on the state of the case, or some of the rights, or full custody)¹⁸. Therefore, in a mixed marriage, where the legal and economic status of a woman is usually not very stable, the question of who the children will remain with during the divorce is decided mainly in favor of the Tunisian father. The main argument of the latter is that the mother will take the child away, depriving him of guardianship, i.e. the exercise of paternal rights and participation in the upbringing of the child. At the same time, in a number of cases of divorce, a positive decision is made in favor of foreign mothers (Soviet/Russian citizens) who had a Tunisian national passport. At the same time, a significant role was played by a woman's personal qualities, the ability to hold on and control her actions, conduct a conversation in a foreign language, as well as her profession, availability of housing, etc.

In general, we note that when it comes to the ease of divorce under Sharia law, this does not mean that it is widely used in all Muslim countries. There are many reasons for this, both related to the peculiarities of the historical and cultural tradition, and of an economic nature. Although Sharia law formally places all Muslim men legally in the same position, divorce, for example, among poor groups of the population is still rare, since it is very expensive to turn a legal possibility into a reality.

As for the issue of children left behind after the death of a spouse, according to modern Tunisian law, a guardian of minor children with all the resulting rights (Article 154 of the Personal Status Code) becomes the survivor, i.e. the mother (both Tunisian and foreign). This article has been in force since 1981. Prior to this, guardianship was entrusted to the nearest male heir. Also, under modern Tunisian law, a divorced mother has been granted custody of her child since 1993. Note that earlier custody, according to Muslim traditions, was a right granted exclusively to men (Article 5 of the Personal Status Code).

Considering the new laws and amendments designed to consolidate the legal status of women (including foreigners) in the system of marriage and family relations, it should be noted that despite the efforts of the Government, their implementation is accompanied by considerable difficulties. In general, the practical solution of these issues, although it has many specific features and nuances, still largely depends on the position that the spouse or relatives on the husband's side will take.

Finally, it is useful to mention the changes in the attitude of Muslims themselves towards such marriages. Thus, according to M. Arkun, mixed marriage not only leads to psychological and cultural perturbations. Based only on the family unit represented only by the couple and their children, it destroys the patriarchal family as such, which is located in a broader framework of social solidarity, which is very effective, and which is still not replaced by any modern institutions of social security (in the West, such organisms are increasingly exposed as unsuitable, for example, in providing social security). old age, where more and more often the elderly are not needed by anyone, are marginalized).

Thus, the current problems of mixed marriages are based not so much on religious or racial grounds, but, perhaps, even more weighty moral, psychological and cultural grounds.

Without claiming the universality of the formula "forewarned means armed", we would like to remind you that it is useful for new generations of Russian women who choose people from the Islamic world as their life partners to get acquainted with such observations.

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¹ And this, we emphasize, only in the main Islamic belt of the continent. In reality, the total number of adherents of Islam in Africa at the beginning of the 1990s was more than 40% of the total population of the continent; of these, in North and North-East Africa-46%, East Africa-about 18%, West Africa-32%, South and Central Africa-about 3%. The largest Muslim communities today are concentrated in Egypt (over 90% of the country's population), Nigeria (about 46%), Algeria (99.6%), Morocco (99%), Tunisia (98.7%), Sudan (about 73%), Ethiopia (at least 50%), Guinea( over 80%), Senegal (80%), Tanzania (over a quarter of the country's population), Somalia (almost 100%), Libya (about 99%). - For more information, see: Africa. Encyclopedic Dictionary, vol. 1, Moscow, 1986, pp. 590-591.

² See, for example: Gilyazutdinova R. H. Yuridicheskaya priroda moslemskogo prava [The legal nature of Muslim law]. Proceedings of the Interregional scientific and practical Conference. Aktual'nye problemy teorii prava i gosudarstva i ekologicheskogo prava [Actual problems of the Theory of Law and the State and Environmental Law], Moscow, 2000; Syukiyainen L. R. Sharia and Muslim Legal Culture, Moscow, 1997. // Islam in post-Soviet space: the view from the inside. M., 2001. While we fully accept the system of definitions of the last mentioned author, including the cultural and legal incorrectness of identifying Muslim law with Sharia, which is primarily a religious and ideological basis for Muslim law, we reserve the right to use the terminology of consular institutions and practical organizations directly involved in working with our compatriots permanently residing in African countries.

^{Mehdi Niyazi.} 3 Muslim woman: complex consequences of imposed restrictions / / Gross Vita. N 1 - [email protected]

⁴ East. 1992, No. 1, p. 61.

^{Sinitsyna I. E.} 5 Custom and Customary Law in Modern Africa, Moscow, 1978; ona: Chelovek i semya v Afrika. (Based on the materials of customary law). Moscow, 1989; Entin L. M. The role of the state in the social development of African countries // "Society and state in Tropical Africa". Moscow, 1980; Iordansky V. B. Chaos and harmony. Moscow, 1982; Law in developing countries: traditions and borrowing. Moscow, 1985; Syukiyainen L. R. Moslemskoe pravo [Muslim Law]. Questions of Theory and practice, Moscow, 1986. А также: Le Droit de la famille en Afrique Noire et a Madagascar. P., 1968.

⁶ Marriage "exodus" to other cultural and religious areas is usually not typical for Muslim women.

⁷ Over the years, attempts have been made in Mauritania to develop a civil code on family and marriage, which has been met with constant obstacles, especially from the Muslim clergy. One of the results was a decision taken in the second half of the 1970s. Political Bureau of the ruling Party of the Mauritanian People (PMN), on the introduction of Sharia law as a set of legislative, moral and ethical principles in the state and public life of the country.

⁸ In the Islamic world, a wide variety of traditions and customs have always coexisted. In this regard, the question of the relationship between Sharia and custom (adat) is of no small importance. Adat is a term that denotes customs and traditions that regulate the way of life of a Muslim in a particular region, along with Sharia. At the same time, Sharia norms and principles are recognized as binding and superior to any other rules of conduct, including adat. It is important for us that custom plays a significant role in regulating marriage and family relations of Muslims, including with non-Believers. Although Muslim legal science allows the use of adat only on condition of non-resistance to Sharia, in the real life of many Islamized peoples, customs continue to prevail, which do not always coincide with the prescriptions of Islam, and often contradict them. Islamic scholars also point out that the term "adat" is used to refer to the customary law of Islamized peoples. The system of rules of conduct, which is a combination of local customs and individual sharia norms, can be called adat law, some of the provisions of which are recognized by the courts, and sometimes form the basis of marriage and family legislation (for more information, see: Syukiyainen L. R. Muslim law. Questions of theory and practice, Moscow, 1986). Adat, as a system of social norms based on local customs of predominantly non-Islamic origin, is still widely used in several parts of Africa. Most of these customs were formed in the context of the existence of tribal relations and pagan beliefs. Moreover, even the adoption of Islam here did not lead to their complete replacement by Sharia.

⁹ From the author's personal archive. Letter dated 20 September 1997 from Ms. A. M. of Nouakchott

^{Arkun M.} 10 Mixed marriage unions in the Muslim environment// East. 2001, No. 6, pp. 131-132.

¹¹ Cm., for example: Sivertseva T. F. Family in the developing countries of the East (the socio-demographic analysis). M., 1985; she is: Modernization and its impact on the family of the East // Interaction and mutual influence of cultures and civilizations in the East. M., 1988; aka: the countries of the East: the model of fertility. M., 1997; Bouhdiba A. Maghribi society and the problems of sex // Vostok, 1992, No. 1; Ponomarenko L. V. Islam in the socio-political and cultural life of France and the states of Northern and Western Africa / / Voprosy istorii, 1998, No. 9; Arkun M. Smeshannye brachnye soyuzy...; Mernissi F. Sexe, Ideologie, Islam. P., 1982; Womenand Gender in Islam. Historical Roots of a Modern Debate. Yale Univ. Press, 1992; Tersigni S. Foulard et Frontiere: le cas des etudiantes musulmanes a rUniversite Paris // Cahiers de PURMIS unite de recherche migrations et societe. P., 1998, N 4 и др.

¹² Information from the Embassy of the USSR in Sudan dated April 6, 1987, addressed to the Head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Sudan. Department of the Consular Department of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs; a package of documents from the USSR Embassy in the United Republic of Tanzania dated February 14, 1978 addressed to the Head of the Consular Department of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Ukrainian SSR, the Personnel Department of the USSR Ministry of Defense, etc.

¹³ Personal status is a branch of Muslim law that regulates the most important aspect of the legal status of Muslims. The subject of this field is marriage, family and inheritance relations, mutual obligations of relatives, guardianship, guardianship and some other related issues. Muslims are particularly sensitive to this area, since most of the norms on personal status are contained in the fundamental sources - the Koran and the Sunnah.

¹⁴ The former President of Tunisia, H. Bourguiba, in 1980 tried to introduce a provision in the legislation that all property (movable and immovable) acquired by one of the spouses becomes family property. However, this attempt met with strong resistance from traditionalist legislators. A year later, as compensation to a woman for moral and material damage in a divorce, the so-called life annuity was introduced, the amount of which is determined taking into account the "usual standard of living for a given family". The annuity, at the choice of the ex-spouse, can be replaced by a lump-sum capital payment.

¹⁵ The new version of article 23 of the Personal Status Code states that each spouse should treat his or her partner with love, kindness and respect, avoid negative influences on the other spouse in every possible way, and perform their marital duties in accordance with traditions and customs. The spouses should jointly manage the household and raise their children. The husband, as the head of the family, should support his wife and children in every possible way, and the wife, in turn, should also contribute to the welfare of the family, if she has the means to do so (Najet Zonaoui Brahmi. Des amendements et des dispositions nouvelles, Une volonte egalitaire, 1997, N 12, p. 35 - 36).

¹⁶ Consular statistics show that most divorces occur in families where the wives are Russians (as well as Ukrainians and Belarusians); there are practically no divorces in families where the wives (even before the collapse of the USSR) come from the Central Asian republics and Transcaucasia, which, however, are much less among compatriots permanently residing today in Tunisia.

¹⁷ Certificate of the USSR Embassy in Tunis" On the organization of the Civil Registry Office in Tunis "dated March 13, 1990; Certificate of the USSR Embassy in Tunis" Some aspects of the legal status of foreign citizens married to Tunisians " dated May 21, 1991.

¹⁸ In 1995, the Tunisian Government promulgated Law No. 65/93 and established a special Guarantee Fund for the payment of alimony and allowances to divorced wives and their children. The work of the Foundation is regulated by a number of articles of this law. The Guarantee Fund itself is managed by the National Insurance Fund (CNSS) and forms its resources at the expense of state budget revenues, alimony and divorce pensions, interest, and in case of late payments - fines for them, income from capital invested by the Fund, donations from citizens.

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