Iranian Women and Legal Pluralism: The Impact on Women’s Rights

2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-69
Author(s):  
Anicée Van Engeland

This article analyzes how Iranian women have become legal actors and unofficial source of law in the Islamic republic of Iran, compelling the government to align on universal women’s rights standards. Iranian women have initiated and supported amendments, bills and reforms to enhance their rights and to work towards the implementation of universal women’s rights standards. The path they have opted for to reform Iranian law is original from many viewpoints: firstly, the reform of Iranian law takes place from the bottom to the top of the society as it is carried out by civil society; then women activists and groups support the reform of methods of interpretation of Islamic legal sources in order to see the emergence of more human rights-orientated interpretations of Islamic law: Eventually to reach their aim of conciliation between Iranian law, Islamic law and universal women’s rights, Iranian women have drawn their inspirations for a reformed Iranian law from many legal sources, giving a practical meaning to the notion of legal pluralism.

2019 ◽  
pp. 135-152
Author(s):  
Rachel Rinaldo

This chapter assesses the impact of the rise of these conservative Islamic countermovements on activism in support of women's rights. After all, women not only played an important role in the push for democracy but were able to see through significant reforms for women during reformasi. But the same conditions that have made it possible for progressive women activists, religious and secular, to make these gains contributed also to the rise of conservative Islamic groups. These groups' values are directly threatened by a vibrant women's movement. This chapter argues that the movement's ideological divisions and its inability to mobilize a mass base—along with the changes brought about by decentralization—have made it difficult for the progressive women's movement to respond to more organized conservative forces.


2012 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-72
Author(s):  
Morteza Karimi-Nia

The status of tafsīr and Qur'anic studies in the Islamic Republic of Iran has changed significantly during recent decades. The essay provides an overview of the state of Qur'anic studies in Iran today, aiming to examine the extent of the impact of studies by Western scholars on Iranian academic circles during the last three decades and the relationship between them. As in most Islamic countries, the major bulk of academic activity in Iran in this field used to be undertaken by the traditional ʿulamāʾ; however, since the beginning of the twentieth century and the establishment of universities and other academic institutions in the Islamic world, there has been increasing diversity and development. After the Islamic Revolution, many gradual changes in the structure and approach of centres of religious learning and universities have occurred. Contemporary advancements in modern sciences and communications technologies have gradually brought the institutions engaged in the study of human sciences to confront the new context. As a result, the traditional Shīʿī centres of learning, which until 50 years ago devoted themselves exclusively to the study of Islamic law and jurisprudence, today pay attention to the teaching of foreign languages, Qur'anic sciences and exegesis, including Western studies about the Qur'an, to a certain extent, and recognise the importance of almost all of the human sciences of the West.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heidi E. Rademacher

Promoting the ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) was a key objective of the transnational women's movement of the 1980s and 1990s. Yet, few studies examine what factors contribute to ratification. The small body of literature on this topic comes from a world-society perspective, which suggests that CEDAW represented a global shift toward women's rights and that ratification increased as international NGOs proliferated. However, this framing fails to consider whether diffusion varies in a stratified world-system. I combine world-society and world-systems approaches, adding to the literature by examining the impact of women's and human rights transnational social movement organizations on CEDAW ratification at varied world-system positions. The findings illustrate the complex strengths and limitations of a global movement, with such organizations having a negative effect on ratification among core nations, a positive effect in the semiperiphery, and no effect among periphery nations. This suggests that the impact of mobilization was neither a universal application of global scripts nor simply representative of the broad domination of core nations, but a complex and diverse result of civil society actors embedded in a politically stratified world.


1990 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gail Minault

Sometime in the late 1890s, Sayyid Mumtaz Ali visited Aligarh and happened to show Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan the manuscript of his treatise in defense of women's rights in Islamic law, Huquq un-Niswan. As he began to read it, Sir Sayyid looked shocked. He then opened it to a second place and his face turned red. As he read it at a third place, his hands started to tremble. Finally, he tore up the manuscript and threw it into the wastepaper basket. Fortunately, at that moment a servant arrived to announce lunch, and as Sir Sayyid left his office, Mumtaz Ali snatched his mutilated manuscript from the trash. He waited until after Sir Sayyid's death in 1898, however, to publish Huquq un-Niswan.


2009 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rohit De

This article investigates the formation of a political consensus between conservative ulama, Muslim reformers, nationalist politicians and women's organisations, which led to the enactment of the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act in 1939. The Act was a radical piece of social legislation that gave South Asian Muslim women greater rights for divorce than those enjoyed by other women in India and Britain. Instead of placing women's rights and Islamic law as opposed to each other, the legislation employed a heuristic that guaranteed women's rights by applying Islamic law, allowing Muslim politicians, ulama and women's groups to find common ground on an Islamic modernity. By interrogating the legislative process and the rhetorical positions employed to achieve this consensus, the paper hopes to map how the women's question was being negotiated anew in the space created in the legislatures. The legislative debate over family law redefined the boundaries of the public and the private, and forced nationalists to reconsider the ‘women's question’. The transformation of Islamic law through secular legislation also gave greater licence to the courts in their interpretation, and widened the schism between traditional practitioners of fiqh and modern lawyers.


2010 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 440
Author(s):  
Uswatun Hasanah

AbstrakIn Islamic law, there are principles of equality among all human beings,including equality between men and women. To manifest the principles ofequality, proper understanding of Islamic law and human rights is needed.Human rights, including women's rights are often mentioned in al-Qur'anand al-Hadits. Islam comes to bring fresh air for women because God'srevelation descended to Prophet Muhammad talks much about women, bothabout their rights and obligations. Although Islam has been present for morethan fourteen centuries ago, but the provisions contained in al-Qur 'an andthe al-Hadith, as sources of Islamic law have not been realized properly inIslamic society, even until today there are still practices in Islamiccommunities that put Muslims women not as they should. Although therewere not many, but the condition can lead to incorrect understanding ofIslam in society that Islam less aware ofwomen's rights. Infact, Islam givesgreat attention and gives a respectable position for women. In order that thewomen's rights can be implemented appropriately, every Muslim shouldunderstand Islamic law well and correctly, so they can realize their rightsand obligations as servants of God, as members of society and citizens.Human rights and women issues should be perceived as a problem faced notby women only, but also by all people in society. Awareness about women'srights in Islam cannot establish by itself but must be cultivated through acorrect dissemination of correct understanding to the community,particularly Muslims, both men and women.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 32-46
Author(s):  
Yetimwork Anteneh Wondim

Irrespective of their contribution, women in Ethiopia have been facing issues like violence, gender-based discrimination, access to education and training, lack of basic human rights protection, and others. Girls' enrollment in education at all levels is much lower than boys. Female education is hampered mainly by the sexual division of labor, which confines girls to household activities. In addition, women have been suffering from gender-based violence under the guise of tradition and culture but condoned by society. In response to these problems, the Government of Ethiopia adopted relevant instruments pertaining to gender including the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), The Beijing Platform for Action, The Ethiopian Constitution, and various other policies and establishing the national machinery for addressing gender issues. However, several challenges still exist in the realization of women's rights. Therefore, all the respect and protection given for human rights should also be given to women because women's rights are human rights.


1988 ◽  
Vol 528 (1 Human Sexual) ◽  
pp. 361-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
LENORE E. A. WALKER

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