Reconstructing qiwamah: Implications for gender justice in Indonesian Islamic family law

The construction of qiwamah in Islamic family law faces tension as normative male leadership intersects with changing women’s economic and social roles. This condition calls for a reconstruction of qiwamah that connects normative status, responsibilities, spouses’ actual capacities, partnership, and gender justice. This study aims to analyze the construction of qiwamah in Islamic family law and formulate a family leadership framework responsive to the dynamics of contemporary Muslim families. The study employs doctrinal literature analysis and reflexive thematic analysis of the Qur’an, Hadith, Indonesian family law, and academic literature on qiwamah, spousal relations, and gender justice. Data were collected through structured documentary searches and analyzed using deductive inductive coding and source triangulation. The findings show that qiwamah encompasses normative, functional, relational, and accountable dimensions. Three key findings indicate that: (1) husband’s leadership constitutes a functional-accountable mandate expressed through financial maintenance, protection, guidance, and fulfillment of family needs; (2) spousal relations are based on partnership, mutual support, deliberation, reciprocity, and proportional distribution of responsibilities; and (3) qiwamah is normative-functional and complementary-participatory, taking into account social change and spouses’ actual capacities. The study concludes that qiwamah is not merely a gender-based authority but leadership legitimized through responsibility, accountability, participation, rights protection, and family welfare. It contributes an integrative construction of qiwamah that connects Islamic normative foundations, contextual interpretation, and gender justice within contemporary Muslim family leadership.