Law Commons^™

This article examines the legal and economic incentives created by the Islamic Marriage and Divorce System (“IMDS”) to develop an empirical model regarding the relative prevalence and severity of clitoridectomy practices in different Muslim societies and considers how those practices may be eliminated from an economic perspective.

Part I of the article establishes the economic link between the IMDS and clitoridectomy and compares the IMDS and the American Marriage & Divorce System (“AMDS”) in terms of their relative efficiency. Part II operationalizes and refines the basic theory outlined in Part I by creating a falsifiable model regarding the relative prevalence …