SHARIA AND ANTI-SHARIA: ETHICAL CHALLENGES FOR THE CROSS-CULTURAL LAWYER REPRESENTING MUSLIM WOMEN ANDREW L. MILNEt I. IN TRODU CTION ...............................................................................
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II. STORY OF FARAH ........................................................................... III. ENHANCED ETHICAL CHALLENGES ............................................... A. Objectives of Representation .................................................. B. Competence and Confidentiality............................................. C. Paternalism............................................................................. IV. PATERNALISM AND VICTIMIZATION .............................................. A . A nti-ShariaLaws .................................................................... B . Victim ization ........................................................................... C. ShariaPluralism andIslamic Feminism................................. D. Dom estic Violence .................................................................. E . Divorce....................................................................................
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C ON CLU SION .................................................................................
I.
INTRODUCTION
Almost all representation can be called cross-cultural. Few people have the same cultural experience, and the distance between their respective experiences may be especially wide when one person is an attorney and member of a relatively exclusive social bracket.1 I will focus in particular on ethical challenges that non-Muslim attorneys may face when representing Muslim women in divorce cases. Ethical challenges are especially salient in the cross-cultural representation of Muslim women in divorce for several reasons. " I conducted the representation and research on which this article is based as a Clinical Teaching Fellow at South Texas College of Law Houston. I would like to thank the staff, faculty, and funders of the Randall 0. Sorrels Legal Clinics for their support. I would also like to thank participants in South Texas College of Law Houston's faculty scholarship presentations and Ethics Symposium for their feedback. Above all, I am grateful to my clients who inspired and informed this project. 1. See Susan Bryant, The Five Habits: Building Cross-CulturalCompetence in Lawyers, 8 CLINICAL L. REv. 33, 41-42 (2001).