Islam and gender : the religious debate in contemporary Iran

Bibliographic Information

Islam and gender : the religious debate in contemporary Iran

Ziba Mir-Hosseini

(Princeton studies in Muslim politics)

Princeton University Press, c1999

  • : cl
  • : pb

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Includes bibliographical references and index

Description and Table of Contents

Volume

: pb ISBN 9780691010045

Description

Following the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and the re-introduction of Sharica law relating to gender and the family, women's rights in Iran suffered a major setback. However, as the implementers of the law have faced the social realities of women's lives and aspirations, positive changes have gradually come about. Here Ziba Mir-Hosseini takes us to the heart of the growing debates concerning the ways in which justice for women should be achieved. Through a series of lively interviews with clerics in the Iranian religious center of Qom, she seeks to understand the varying notions of gender that inform Islamic jurisprudence and to explore how clerics today perpetuate and modify these notions. Mir-Hosseini finds three main approaches to the issue: insistence on "traditional" patriarchal interpretations based on "complementarity" but "inequality" between women and men; attempts to introduce "balance" into traditional interpretations; or a radical rethinking of the jurisprudential constructions of gender. She introduces the debates among the commentators by examining key passages in both written and oral texts and by narrating her meetings and discussions with the authors. Unique in its approach and its subject matter, the book relates Mir-Hosseini's engagement, as a Muslim woman and a social anthropologist educated and working in the West, with Shii'i Muslim thinkers of various backgrounds and views. In the literature on women in Islam, there is no account of such a face-to-face encounter, either between religion and gender politics or between the two genders.

Table of Contents

Foreword ix Preface xi Acknowledgments xxi Note on Language xxiii Introduction 3 Gender in Islam: The Need for Clarity 3 Perspectives on Women in Post-Revolutionary Iran 7 Narrative and Debate in Ethnographic Writing 10 Religious Authority and Knowledge in Post-Revolutionary Iran 11 Ethnography of Gender Debates in Qom: The Organization of the Book 17 PART ONE: THE TRADITIONALISTS: GENDER INEQUALITY 21 Introduction to Part One 23 One Women Ignored: Grand Ayatollah Madani 26 "The Way of Rulings on Marriage and Divorce" 30 "Newly Created Problems" 31 Ayatollah Madani in 1997 47 Two Women Politicized: Ayatollah Azari-Qomi 49 "Women's Image in the Islamic Order 51 "The Personality of Wooman in Comparison to Man" 58 "Duties of Wives and Husbands toward Each Other" 63 The "Culture of Hejab" 65 "Response to Your Questions" 71 Ayatollah Azari-Qomi in 1997 78 PART TWO: THE NEO-TRADITIONALISTS: GENDER BALANCE 81 Introduction to Part Two 83 Three Women Represented: Discussions with Payam-e Zan 86 The Discussion Begins 88 A Visit to the Shrine in Qom 110 Four Equality or Balance: Redefining Gender Notions in the Shari'a 112 The Second Session with Payam-e Zan 115 Five Women Reconsidered: Ayatollah Yusef Sane'i 144 Discussion with Ayatollah Sane'i 147 After the Meeting 168 Six Agreeing to Differ: Final Meeting with Payam-e Zan 170 The Final Session 172 A Second Visit to the Shrine 207 Payam-e Zan in 1997 208 PART THREE: THE MODERNISTS: TOWARD GENDER EQUALITY 211 Introduction to Part Three 213 Seven Challenges and Complicities: Abdolkarim Sorush and Gender 217 Sorush's Lectures on Women 222 Sorush in London 237 Eight Gender Equality and Islamic Jurisprudence: The Work of Hojjat ol-Eslam Sa'idzadeh 247 Sa'idzadeh in 1997 268 Conclusion 273 Glossary 281 Bibliographic Essay 283 Bibliography 287 Index 303
Volume

: cl ISBN 9780691058153

Description

Following the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and the re-introduction of Sharica law relating to gender and the family, women's rights in Iran suffered a major setback. However, as the implementers of the law have faced the social realities of women's lives and aspirations, positive changes have gradually come about. Here Ziba Mir-Hosseini takes us to the heart of the growing debates concerning the ways in which justice for women should be achieved. Through a series of lively interviews with clerics in the Iranian religious center of Qom, she seeks to understand the varying notions of gender that inform Islamic jurisprudence and to explore how clerics today perpetuate and modify these notions. Mir-Hosseini finds three main approaches to the issue: insistence on "traditional" patriarchal interpretations based on "complementarity" but "inequality" between women and men; attempts to introduce "balance" into traditional interpretations; or a radical rethinking of the jurisprudential constructions of gender. She introduces the debates among the commentators by examining key passages in both written and oral texts and by narrating her meetings and discussions with the authors. Unique in its approach and its subject matter, the book relates Mir-Hosseini's engagement, as a Muslim woman and a social anthropologist educated and working in the West, with Shii'i Muslim thinkers of various backgrounds and views. In the literature on women in Islam, there is no account of such a face-to-face encounter, either between religion and gender politics or between the two genders.

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