2 Law and Biology: Menstruation, Amenorrhea, and Legal Recognition of Reproductive Status

Abstract

Certain aspects of Islamic marital law had the potential to exacerbate or mitigate tensions surrounding fertility. As previously mentioned, this was true of Islamic legal tolerance for both polygamy and divorce. However, there were additional concepts which helped to shape the experience of infertility. The legal significance attached to menarche, menstruation, pregnancy, amenorrhea, and menopause also played a consequential role. So too did the legal dependence on, and distaste for, the mediating role played by midwives and other experts in female gynecology. In this chapter, we will examine medieval legal assumptions about what constitutes child-bearing age, the legal ramifications attached to a woman’s menstrual cycles and their interruption, and how, counter-intuitively, social and legal flexibility regarding the length of gestation sometimes helped to protect and empower women who did not conceive at all.