Muslim women's quest for equality: Between Islamic law and feminism

Critical Inquiry

Volumn 32, Issue 4, 2006, Pages 629-645

  Mir Hosseini, Ziba ^a  

^a Middle East Institute

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 58149118782     PISSN: 00931896     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1086/508085     Document Type: Review

References (62)

1. Although the leading religious authority in Iraq, Ayatollah Sistani, differs from the ruling Iranian clerics on the proper role of religion in government, his interpretations of the sharia on gender relations and family law are more conservative, traditional, and patriarchal. His views are available on his website (www.sistani.org), which contains his rulings and fatwas on family and gender relations.
2. For reports on recent developments, see for instance Isobel Coleman and Mehlaqa Samdani, "Promote Iraqi Women's Rights within an Islamic Framework," Christian Science Monitor, 14 Oct. 2005, p. 9;
3. Edmund Sanders, "The Conflict in Iraq: Islamic Slant in the Charter Is Decried," Los Angeles Times, 8 Aug. 2005, p. A1;
4. and Coleman, "Women, Islam, and the New Iraq," Foreign Affairs 85 (Jan.-Feb. 2006), http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20060101faessay85104/isobel- coleman/women-islam- and-the-new-iraq.html
5. For a discussion, see Lila Abu-Lughod, "Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others," American Anthropologist 194 (Sept. 2002): 783-90
6. and Roksana Bahramitsh, "The War on Terror, Feminist Orientalism, and Orientalist Feminism: Case Studies of Two North American Bestsellers," Critique 14 (2005): 221-35.
7. See Mir-Hosseini, Islam and Gender: The Religious Debate in Contemporary Iran (Princeton, N.J., 1999), pp. 3-6.
8. For the development of my own position and approach, see Mir-Hosseini, preface, Islam and Gender, pp. xi-xx
9. and preface, Marriage on Trial: A Study of Islamic Family Law in Iran and Morocco, 2d ed. (London, 2000), pp. vii-xi.
10. For this distinction, see Muhammad Hashim Kamali, "Sources, Nature, and Objectives of Shari'ah," Islamic Quarterly 33, no. 4 (1989): 216
11. and Khaled Abou El Fadl, Speaking in God's Name: Islamic Law, Authority, and Women (Oxford, 2001), pp. 32-35.
12. For an argument not employing the distinction, see Abdullahi An-Na'im, "Islamic Foundation for Women's Human Rights," in Islam, Reproductive Health, and Women's Rights, ed. Zainah Anwar and Rashida Abdullah (Kuala Lumpur, 2000), pp. 33-34.
13. For a discussion of conceptions of justice in Islamic texts, see Majid Khadduri, The Islamic Conception of Justice (Baltimore, 1984). In brief, there are two schools of theology and thought. The dominant Ash'ari school holds that our notion of justice is contingent on religious texts; whatever they say is just and not open to question. The Mu'tazili school, on the other hand, argues that the value of justice exists independent of religious texts; our sense and definition of justice is shaped by sources outside religion, is innate, and has a rational basis. I adhere to the second position, as developed by Abdolkarim Soroush, the Iranian reformist philosopher. According to Soroush, we accept religion because it is just, and any religious texts or laws that defy our contemporary sense of justice or its definition should be reinterpreted in the light of an ethical critique of their religious roots. In other words religion and the interpretation of religious texts are not above justice and ethics. In summer 2004, Soroush expounded his argument in a series of four lectures at Amir-Kabir University, Tehran, entitled "Religious Society, Ethical Society."
14. For an analysis of this period and the reform movement in Iran through the work of one of its clerical advocates, see Mir-Hosseini and Richard Tapper, Islam and Democracy in Iran: Eshkevari and the Quest for Reform (London, 2006).
15. See In the Shadow of Islam: The Women's Movement in Iran, ed. Azar Tabari and Nahid Yeganeh (London, 1982), p. 232.
16. The name of this film is Divorce Iranian Style, dir. Mir-Hosseini and Kim Longinotto (London, 1998).
17. For pre- and postrevolutionary family law in Iran, see Mir-Hosseini, "Family Law in Modern Persia," Encyclopaedia Iranica, 11 vols., ed. Ehsan Yarshater (Costa Mesa, Calif., 1999), 9:192-96.
18. For a concise account of this theory, see Soroush, "The Evolution and Devolution of Religious Knowledge," in Liberal Islam: A Sourcebook, ed. Charles Kurzman (Oxford, 1998), pp. 244-54;
19. for a selection of his writings in English, see Sourosh, Reason, Freedom, and Democracy in Islam: Essential Writings of Abdolkarim Soroush, trans. and ed. Mahmoud Sadri and Ahmed Sadri (Oxford, 2000).
20. For a sample of the textual genealogy of this thinking, see Kurzman, Liberal Islam.
21. See Ernest Gellner, "The Importance of Being Modular," in Civil Society: Theory, History, Comparison, ed. John A. Hall (Cambridge, 1995), p. 39.
22. See, for instance, Azadeh Kian, "Women and Politics in Post-Revolutionary Iran: The Gender-Conscious Drive to Change," Women Living under Muslim Laws 21 (July 1998): 32-55;
23. Mir-Hosseini, "Stretching the Limits: A Feminist Reading of the Shari'a in Post-Khomeini Iran," in Islam and Feminism: Legal and Literary Perspectives, ed. Mai Yamani (London, 1996), pp. 285-319;
24. Afsaneh Najmabadi, "Feminism in an Islamic Republic: 'Years of Hardship, Years of Growth,'" in Islam, Gender, and Social Change, ed. Yvonne Haddad and John Esposito (Oxford, 1998), pp. 59-89;
25. and Parvin Paidar, "Feminism and Islam in Iran," in Gendering the Middle East: Emerging Perspectives, ed. Deniz Kandiyoti (London, 1996), pp. 51-68.
26. Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate (New Haven, Conn., 1992), p. 154.
27. See Mounira Charrad, States and Women's Rights: The Making of Postcolonial Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco (Berkeley, 2001);
28. Women, Islam, and the State, ed. Kandiyoti (Basingstoke, England, 1991);
29. and Paidar, Women and the Political Process in Twentieth-Century Iran (Cambridge, 1995).
30. On Egypt, see Margot Badran, Feminists, Islam, and Nation: Gender and the Making of Modern Egypt (Princeton, N.J., 1995).
31. On Iran, see Paidar, Women and the Political Process in Twentieth-Century Iran.
32. Ahmed, "Early Feminist Movements in the Middle East: Turkey and Egypt," in Muslim Women, ed. Freda Hussain (London, 1984), p. 122.
33. There is a growing literature on Islamic feminism and its politics. See for instance Haleh Afshar, Islam and Feminisms: An Iranian Case-Study (Basingstoke, England, 1998);
34. Badran, "Islamic Feminism: What's in a Name?" Al-Ahram Weekly, 17 Jan. 2002, http://weekly.ahram. org.eg/2002/569/cu1.htm
35. and "Between Secular and Islamic Feminisms: Reflections on the Middle East and Beyond," Journal of Middle Eastern Women's Studies 1 (2005): 6-28;
36. Elizabeth Fernea, In Search of Islamic Feminism: One Woman's Global Journey (New York, 1998);
37. Anouar Majid, "The Politics of Feminism in Islam" and Valentine Moghadam, "Islamic Feminism and Its Discontents: Toward a Resolution of the Debate," in Gender, Politics, and Islam, ed. Therese Saliba (Chicago, 2002), pp. 15-51;
38. Mir-Hosseini, "Islamic Law and Feminism: The Story of a Relationship," Yearbook of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law 9 (2002): 34-42;
39. Mirza, "Islamic Feminism, Possibilities and Limitations," in Law after Ground Zero, ed. John Strawson (London, 2002), pp. 108-22;
40. Mirza, Islamic Feminism and the Law;
41. Najmabadi Heba Raouf Ezzat, "The Silent Ayesha: An Egyptian Narrative," in Globalization, Gender, and Religion: The Politics of Women's Rights in Catholic and Muslim Contexts, ed. Jane H. Bayes and Nayereh Tohidi (New York, 2001), pp. 231-57;
42. Anne Sofie Roald, "Feminist Reinterpretation of Islamic Sources: Muslim Feminist Theology in Light of the Christian Tradition of Feminist Thought," in Women and Islamization: Contemporary Dimensions of Discourse on Gender Relations, ed. Karen Ask and Marit Tjomsland (Oxford, 1998), pp. 17-44;
43. Sa'diyya Shaikh, "Transforming Feminism: Islam, Women, and Gender Justice" and Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons, "Are We up to the Challenge? The Need for a Radical Re-ordering of the Islamic Discourse on Women," in Progressive Muslims: On Justice, Gender, and Pluralism, ed. Omid Safi (Oxford, 2003), pp. 147-62, 235-48;
44. and Tohidi, "'Islamic Feminism': Perils and Promises," Mews Review 16 (Fall 2001), http://www.amews.org/review/reviewarticles/tohidi.htm
45. See Haideh Moghissi, Feminism and Islamic Fundamentalism: The Limits of Postmodern Analysis (London, 1999).
46. Given the centrality of law in Judaism, there are interesting parallels and differences in the ways in which Muslim and Jewish feminists deal with patriarchal laws legitimated through religious tradition. On Jewish feminism, see On Being a Jewish Feminist, ed. Susannah Heschel (New York, 1995).
47. In addition to works mentioned in note 19, see Azizah Al-Hibri, "Islam, Law, and Custom: Redefining Muslim Women's Rights," American University Journal of International Law and Policy 12, no. 1 (1997): 1-44;
48. Kecia Ali, "Progressive Muslims and Islamic Jurisprudence: Lhe Necessity for Critical Engagement with Marriage and Divorce Law," in Progressive Muslims, pp. 163-89;
49. Asghar Ali Engineer, The Rights of Women in Islam (London, 1992);
50. Farid Esack, "Islam and Gender Justice: Beyond Simplistic Apologia," in What Men Owe to Women: Men's Voices from World Religions, ed. John C. Raines and Daniel C. Maguire (Albany, N.Y., 2001), pp. 187-210;
51. Haifaa Jawad, The Rights of Women in Islam: An Authentic Approach (Basingstoke, England, 1998);
52. Mir-Hosseini, "The Construction of Gender in Islamic Legal Thought and Strategies for Reform," Hawwa 1, no. 1 (2003): 1-28;
53. and Amira El-Azhary Sonbol, "Rethinking Women and Islam," in Daughters of Abraham: Feminist Thought in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, ed. Haddad and Esposito (Gainesville, Fla., 2001), pp. 108-46.
54. See, for instance, Asma Barlas, "Believing Women" in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur'an (Austin, 2002);
55. Riffat Hassan, "Equal before Allah? Woman-Man Equality in the Islamic Tradition," Selected Articles (Grabels, France, 1987), pp. 12-24;
56. Fatima Mernissi, Women and Islam: An Historical and Theological Enquiry, trans. Mary Jo Lakeland (Oxford, 1991);
57. Shaikh, "Exegetical Violence: Nushuz in Qur'anic Gender Ideology," Journal for Islamic Studies 17 (1997): 49-73;
58. and Amina Wadud, Qur'an and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman's Perspective (New York, 1999).
59. This struggle is not confined to Iran or to the Shi'a branch of Islam. For two recent accounts of its unfolding in history and other contexts, see Reza Aslan, No God but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam (New York, 2005)
60. and Remaking Muslim Politics: Pluralism, Contestation, Democratization, ed. Robert Hefner (Princeton, N.J., 2005).
61. See An-Na'im, "The Dichotomy between Religious and Secular Discourse in Islamic Societies," in Faith and Freedom: Women's Human Rights in the Muslim World, ed. Mahnaz Afkhami (London, 1995), pp. 51-60.
62. Badran, "Islamic Feminism," p. 3.