Muslim Women's Quest for Equality: Between Islamic Law and ...

Critical Inquiry / Summer 2006 643impeded their realization. Instead, these norms were assimilated into Islamicjurisprudence through a set of theological, legal, and social theoriesbased on certain underlying assumptions: women are created of men andfor men; women are inferior to men; women need to be protected; men areguardians and protectors of women; and male and female sexuality differand the latter is dangerous to the social order. These assumptions and theoriesare nowhere more evident than in the rules that define the formationand termination of marriage, through which gender inequalities are sustainedin present-day Muslim societies. In my own work on marriage anddivorce, I have tried to engage these juristic assumptions to show how thescience of Islamic jurisprudence became the prisoner of its own legal theories,which in time has come to bypass the Koranic call for justice andreform.Conclusions and ImplicationsBefore considering the implications of my account of Muslim women’squest for equality in a global politics shaped by the so-called war on terror,let me suggest some answers to my opening questions, which I now rephrase.Can sharia and feminism coexist? If so, how, and by what meansand processes?I have pursued these questions in the contexts of the reformistmovementin Iran and the emerging feminist voices in Islam, which are both part of alarger intellectual and ideological struggle among Muslims over two opposedunderstandings of their religion and two ways of relating to its sacredtexts. One is an absolutist and legalistic Islam, as understood and constructedin traditional fiqh, which makes little concession to contemporaryrealities and the aspirations of Muslims. The other is a pluralistic and tolerantIslam that is making room for these realities and values, includinggender equality. 24 The struggle over interpretations of Islam’s sacred textshas shaped Islamic history and civilization and undoubtedly will continueto do so. Since the early twentieth century the issue of women’s rights hasbeen central to this struggle, reflecting both modern realities and thechanged status of Muslim women.The emergence of new feminist voices in Islam in the late 1980s was theinception of the latest stage in this struggle. By advocating a brand of feminismthat takes Islam as the source of its legitimacy, these feminist voicesare effectively challenging the hegemony of patriarchal interpretations of24. This struggle is not confined to Iran or to the Shi‘a branch of Islam. For two recent accountsof its unfolding in history and other contexts, see Reza Aslan, No God but God: The Origins,Evolution, and Future of Islam (New York, 2005), and Remaking Muslim Politics: Pluralism,Contestation, Democratization, ed. Robert Hefner (Princeton, N.J., 2005).