Nurul Huda Mohd Razif

Biography

Nurul Huda Mohd. Razif is a social anthropologist and Research Fellow at the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) in Leiden. She read social anthropology and French Studies at the University of Western Australia and Sciences Po Paris, before completing her PhD in Social Anthropology at Queens’ College, Cambridge. Her doctoral research explores the relationship between marriage, intimacy, and the state in contemporary Malaysia, with a focus on how changing marriage patterns and recent legal amendments facilitating cross-border marriages create a favorable climate for polygyny. Prior to joining IIAS, she had the pleasure of serving briefly as a Visiting Fellow at the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV) in the summer of 2018. She will soon join Harvard Law School’s Program on Law and Society in the Muslim world for the 2019-2020 academic year.

Research projects

• Nikah Express: Polygyny, Marriage-Making & the State at the Malaysian-Thai Border - KITLV (2018)
• Justice & Jealousy in Malay Polygamy - IIAS (2018-9)
• Intimacy, Sorcery, Islam & the State in Contemporary Malaysia - FMSH (2019)

Selective bibliography

Nurul Huda Mohd. Razif 2018, “The Unhappy Polygamist: Desire & (Dis)satisfaction in Malay Polygamy”, in Friendship and Happiness: A Global Perspective, eds. T. Delaney & T. Madigan, Vernon Press, Wilmington, pp. 163-169.

Nurul Huda Mohd. Razif, “Loose Laws & Questionable Morals: Moral Policing & Eloped Marriages in Contemporary Malaysia”, Hawwa: Journal of Women of the Middle East & the Islamic World, Special Issue on Gender & Judging, edited by Monika Lindbekk & Susanne Dahlgren. Currently under peer-review.