Midwives as advocates

exploring women’s expert testimony in medieval North Africa

Abstract

Throughout the medieval world, women’s bodily statuses could have religio-legal consequences, and for that reason female midwives were sometimes called in as expert witnesses in Islamic legal proceedings to examine and testify about women’s bodies. Midwives in such roles appear, at first glance, to be the eyes and instruments of male authorities. Drawing on fatwas from North Africa and Islamic Spain, however, this article argues that the role of midwives was sometimes more complex. Each of the three cases presented here addresses a different concern about a woman’s body. In the first, a question arises as to whether a widow is pregnant. In the second, whether an orphan girl is sufficiently physically developed to marry. In the third, the question is whether and when a kidnapped and assaulted girl lost her virginity. In each case, the midwives repeatedly changed their testimonies. This was not a symptom of either dysfunction or unreliability; rather; it was a product of the midwives’ roles as agents of women in precarious positions, women whose calculations about what constituted their best interests were constantly shifting. The testimonies of midwives in these cases served less as a patriarchal means of weaponizing women’s own bodies against them, and more as tools for converting women’s personal distresses and hopes into actionable legal petitions. The midwives worked to secure the religio-legal status that would confer the greatest benefit on the women in need, and that would provide a framework for the community to meet those needs. Thus, it behooves historians to view these midwives not merely as instruments of prosecutorial and censorious men, but rather as advocates for women.