This article critically examines instances of judicial activism in the field
of Islamic family law in Bangladesh in an attempt to assess this judicial
trend. Seeing ‘judicial activism’ mainly as an enlightened application of
ijtih§d and also as society-specific application of statutes based on, or related
to sharÊ#ah, we highlight the justice-ameliorative role of this concept. The
authors argue that judicial activism has led to the amelioration of the status
of women in Bangladesh as compared to a traditional construction of the
sharÊ#ah, and that judges have adequate authority and legitimacy to develop
Islamic family law to ensure better justice in the home. We conclude that
modernist judicial reform is not only desirable but also inevitable in the
current South Asian socio-legal milieu, where legislative passivity vis-à-vis
Islamic family law prevails.