AcknowledgementsIntroductionMuslim Marriage and Non-Marriage: Religion, Politics, and Intimate LifeAnnelies Moors and Julie McBrienPart I—The Politicization of Marriage: Problematization, Agency, and ActivismTroublesome Marriages and the Politics of the Future in KyrgyzstanJulie McBrienProblematizing Early Marriages : Development Narratives and Refugee Experiences in JordanDina ZbeidyThe Politics of Cohesion : Salafi Preachers and the Problematization of Muslim Marriages in the NetherlandsMartijn de KoningPalestinian Women Prisoners : The Relational Politics of Incarceration, Marriage, and SeparationSamah Saleh and Annelies MoorsPart II—The Micro-politics of (Non-)marriage: Intimacy, Materiality, and Social TransformationCohabitation and ‘Urfi Marriages in Tunisia : Public Discourse and Personal NarrativesIris KolmanExceptionally Ordinary: Singling out Single Mothers in MoroccoAnnerienke FiooleConfiguring Communities: The Materialities of Dubai’s Migrant MarriagesJoud AlkoraniThe Dower among Moroccan Muslims in the Netherlands : Generational and Gendered ShiftsLoubna el MorabetWhen Islamic Marriage Travels to the Netherlands : Convert Muslim Women (Re)Signifying the Marriage Guardian and the DowerAnnelies Moors and Vanessa Vroon-NajemPart III—Interfaith Marriage: Religious Difference and Multiple PositionalitiesThe Intimate Politics of Publicly Staging “Mixed Couples” : The Gendered Racialization of a Poster CampaignShifra Kisch, Rahma Bavelaar, and Annelies Moors“We are an Example of Ceuta’s Convivencia” : Muslim–Christian Marriages at Europe’s North-African BorderIbtisam SadeghInterfaith Marriages in Indonesia : Between the Law, State Ideology, and Progressive Muslim VoicesEva F. NisaContracting Coptic-Muslim Marriage in Egypt : Class, Gender, and Clerical Mediation in the Administrative Management of Religious “Crossings”Rahma BavelaarAbout the authorsPerspectives and practices of couples in unconventional Muslim marriages.Unconventional Muslim marriages have been topics of heated public debate. Around the globe, religious scholars, policy makers, political actors, media personalities, and women’s activists discuss, promote, or reject unregistered, transnational, interreligious and other boundary-crossing marriages. Couples entering into such marriages, however, often have different concerns from those publicly discussed. Based on ethnographic research in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and Asia, the chapters of this volume examine couples’ motivations for, aspirations about, and abilities to enter into these marriages. The contributions show the diverse ways in which such marriages are concluded, and inquire into how they are performed, authorized or contested as Muslim marriages. These marriages may challenge existing ties of belonging and transform boundaries between religious and other communities, but they may also, and sometimes simultaneously, reproduce and solidify them.Building on insights from different disciplines, both from the social sciences (anthropology, political science, gender and sexuality studies) and from the humanities (history, Islamic legal studies, religious studies), the authors address a wide range of controversial Muslim marriages (unregistered, interreligious, transnational, etc.), and include the views of religious scholars, state authorities, and political actors and activists, as well as the couples themselves, their families, and their wider social circle.Unconventional Muslim marriages have been topics of heated public debate. Around the globe, religious scholars, policy makers, political actors, media personalities, and women’s activists discuss, promote, or reject unregistered, transnational, interreligious and other boundary-crossing marriages. Couples entering into such marriages, however, often have different concerns from those publicly discussed. Based on ethnographic research in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and Asia, the chapters of this volume examine couples’ motivations for, aspirations about, and abilities to enter into these marriages. The contributions show the diverse ways in which such marriages are concluded, and inquire into how they are performed, authorized or contested as Muslim marriages. These marriages may challenge existing ties of belonging and transform boundaries between religious and other communities, but they may also, and sometimes simultaneously, reproduce and solidify them.Building on insights from different disciplines, both from the social sciences (anthropology, political science, gender and sexuality studies) and from the humanities (history, Islamic legal studies, religious studies), the authors address a wide range of controversial Muslim marriages (unregistered, interreligious, transnational, etc.), and include the views of religious scholars, state authorities, and political actors and activists, as well as the couples themselves, their families, and their wider social circle.