Slavery in Muslim-Majority Countries

In which Muslim-majority countries does slavery remain a problem? Here's an alphabetical listing of this phenomenon, with additions as appropriate:

• Afghanistan: Mostly concerns boys.
• Mauritania: Slavery remains a major institution.
• Pakistan: Mostly a rural phenomenon.
• Saudi Arabia: Despite a 1962 law banning the practice, it remains in place. A leading theologian even states that to reject Shar'i slavery is not to be a Muslim.
• Sudan: Chattel slavery returned in force with civil war in the 1990s.
• Yemen: As in Saudi Arabia – a 1962 legal abolishment has not been fully effective.

Also of note:

• The devshirme-like institution found in such widely separated countries as Pakistan and Senegal.
• The informal but widespread conditions of enforced servitude that foreign laborers, especially domestic workers, suffer from. For an example of the workers' forced labor in Qatar, see Richard Morin, "Indentured Servitude in the Persian Gulf," The New York Times, April 14, 2013.

(July 21, 2010)

Related Topics:  Islamic law (Shari'a), Slavery receive the latest by email: subscribe to daniel pipes' free mailing list This text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an integral whole with complete and accurate information provided about its author, date, place of publication, and original URL.