Ziba Mir-Hosseini
Muslim Women's Quest for Equality: Between Islamic Law and Feminism
Muslim jurists claim, and all Muslims believe, that justice and equality are intrinsic values and cardinal principles in Islam and the sharia. If this is the case, in a state that claims to be guided by the sharia, why are justice and equality not reflected in the laws that regulate gender relations and the rights of men and women? Why do Islamic jurisprudential texts—which define the terms of the sharia—treat women as second-class citizens and place them under men's domination?
I came to confront these questions in 1979, when a popular revolution in my country, Iran, transformed my personal and intellectual life. Like most Iranian women, I strongly supported the 1978–79 revolution and believed in the justice of Islam; but when the Islamists strengthened their hold on power and made the sharia (or their interpretation of it) the law of the land, I found myself a second-class citizen. This brought the realization that there can be no justice for me, as a Muslim woman, as long as patriarchy is justified and upheld in the name of Islam. The prevailing interpretations of the sharia do not reflect the values and principles that I hold to be at the core of my faith.
ZIBA MIR-HOSSEINI (zibamir@onetel.com) is an independent consultant, researcher, and writer on Middle Eastern issues, specializing in gender, family relations, and Islamic law and development, and is based at the London Middle East Institute. In fall 2006, she will be Hauser Global Law Visiting Professor at the School of Law, New York University. Her recent books include Islam and Gender: The Religious Debate in Contemporary Iran (1999) and, with Richard Tapper, Islam and Democracy in Iran: Eshkevari and the Quest for Reform (2006). She has also directed (with Kim Longinetto) two feature-length documentary films on contemporary issues in Iran: Divorce Iranian Style (1998) and Runaway (2001).
