Ziba Mir-Hosseini Libros

Many contemporary Muslim family laws rest on patriarchal concepts. The time for change is now.

For some, the Iranian Revolution of 1978-79 was the triumph of a modern, political Islam, heralding Muslim justice and economic prosperity. This book reveals the intellectual and political trajectory of a Muslim thinker and his attempts to reconcile Islam with reform and democracy.

If justice is an intrinsic value in Islam, why have women been treated as second-class citizens in Islamic legal tradition?

The book delves into the impact of the 1979 Islamic Revolution on women's rights in Iran, highlighting the challenges posed by Sharia law. It features insightful interviews with clerics in Qom, revealing diverse interpretations of gender within Islamic jurisprudence. Ziba Mir-Hosseini examines how these religious leaders navigate the complexities of women's aspirations, illustrating both the resistance and gradual evolution of ideas surrounding justice for women in contemporary Iran.

"Gender equality is a modern ideal, which has only recently, with the expansion of human rights and feminist discourses, become inherent to generally accepted conceptions of justice. In Islam, as in other religious traditions, the idea of equality between men and women was neither central to notions of justice nor part of the juristic landscape, and Muslim jurists did not begin to address it until the twentieth century. The personal status of Muslim men, women and children continues to be defined by understandings of Islamic law codified and adapted by modern nation-states that assume authority to be the natural prerogative of men, that disadvantage women and that are prone to abuse. This volume argues that effective and sustainable reform of these laws and practices requires engagement with their religious rationales from within the tradition. Gender and Equality in Muslim Family Law offers a groundbreaking analysis of family law, based on fieldwork in family courts, and illuminated by insights from distinguished clerics and scholars of Islam from Morocco, Egypt, Iran, Pakistan and Indonesia, as well as by the experience of human rights and women s rights activists. It explores how male authority is sustained through law and court practice in different contexts, the consequences for women and the family, and the demands made by Muslim women s groups. The book argues for women's full equality before the law by re-examining the jurisprudential and theological arguments for male guardianship (qiwama, wilaya) in Islamic legal tradition. Using contemporary examples from various contexts, from Morocco to Malaysia, this volume presents an informative and vital analysis of these societies and gender relations within them. It unpicks the complex and often contradictory attitudes towards Muslim family law, and the ways in which justice and ethics are conceived in the Islamic tradition. The book offers a new framework for rethinking old formulations so as to reflect contemporary realities and understandings of justice, ethics and gender rights"--Publisher's description