Nurul Huda Mohd. Razif

Nurul Huda Mohd. Razif is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Foreign Languages at the University of Bergen, Norway, under the prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action. Her research focuses on socio-legal anthropology at the intersection of intimacy, Islam, and state governance in Muslim Southeast Asia, with extensive multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Malaysia and Southern Thailand.

Her educational background includes:

• PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge
• Studies in Anthropology and French at Sciences Po Paris and the University of Western Australia

Her research examines how matrimonial wealth division, polygynous marriage practices, and cross-border elopements operate under Malaysian Islamic family law, revealing critical tensions between adat (customary traditions) and Shari'ah jurisprudence. Current work investigates how co-wife competition for resources and inheritance disputes dramatized in Malay popular culture reflect deeper societal anxieties about wealth distribution in polygynous contexts.

Her publications consistently analyze the codification of cultural practices within Islamic legal frameworks across Southeast Asia, with recent work tracing how Malay adat influences contemporary Shari'ah court rulings on marriage and inheritance.

Her distinguished scientific awards include:

• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action Fellowship (2024-2026)
• Harvard Law School Fellowship
• Research fellowships at CSEAS (Kyoto), KITLV/IIAS (Leiden), and CASE-EHESS (Paris)

She currently leads the MALAYMATRIMONEY project (2024-2026) funded by the European Commission, employing ethnographic methods in Kuala Lumpur's Shari'ah Courts to document how couples navigate matrimonial wealth claims during polygyny applications. This work addresses critical gaps in understanding legal codification in Muslim-majority states.

Her research operates at the intersection of the University of Bergen's Department of Foreign Languages and Southeast Asian legal anthropology networks, collaborating closely with Professor Eirik Hovden on fieldwork in Malaysian Shari'ah court systems.