Journeys toward gender equality in Islam

Abstract

Journeys toward gender equality in Islam by Ziba Mir-Hosseini takes the reader on a rigorous journey through the constructedness of knowledge projects, and the individual and collective modes of inquiry that go into de-centering consolidated sources of religious authority. This remarkable collection of conversations reveals the author’s sophisticated grasp on both the conceptual intricacies and the practical difficulties of pursuing gender equality from within an Islamic legal framework. Some questions threaded through the chapters include: Why and how is the justice-oriented spirit of Islam eroded when codified into law? Who has the authority to interpret the word of God? How do linguistic and social structures constrain the expansive possibilities within sacred texts? Which religious rulings are bound by time and context, and which are timeless and immutable? Is it productive to distinguish between Shari’a (God’s will as revealed to the Prophet Muhammad) and fiqh (understanding) to reveal the human elements of interpretation that mask as God’s word? And is it futile or necessary to engage traditional centers of religious learning that are exceptionally resistant to change in order to enact concrete reforms from within? Each chapter fleshes out the specific strategies that reformist and feminist Muslim thinkers have pursued to loosen the monopoly of the ulema and the state over Shari’as proper applications. Mir-Hosseini’s inquiry is grounded in her belief that justice is an intrinsic value in Islam and that treating women as second-class citizens is antithetical to Islam’s spirit. Indeed, these questions remain crucial today when we consider the patriarchal thrust of Sharia laws in most Muslim countries around the world. The book is comprised of seven chapters framed by an introduction and a conclusion. The introduction illuminates the stakes of the larger project, anchoring the political in the personal story of Mir-Hosseini’s struggle to secure a divorce from her ex-husband who was unwilling to grant it. Unfolding in the early 1980s in post-revolution Iran (a revolution that she had supported), Mir-Hosseini’s jarring encounters with patriarchal brokers of Islamic laws made it clear to her that ‘ ... .by the time a marital dispute reached court, whatever was sacred and ethical in the law had evaporated’. And that ‘What was left of the Shari’a