Women and Religion

Contemporary and Future Challenges in the Global Era

Ruspini, Elisabetta, Bonifacio, Glenda Tibe

• Publisher: Policy Press
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781447336372
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Gender Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

This edited collection provides interdisciplinary, global, and multi-religious perspectives on the relationship between women's identities, religion, and social change in the contemporary world. The book discusses the experiences and positions of women, and particular groups of women, to understand patterns of religiosity and religious change. It also addresses the current and future challenges posed by women's changes to religion in different parts of the world and among different religious traditions and practices. The contributors address a diverse range of themes and issues including the attitudes of different religions to gender equality; how women construct their identity through religious activity; whether women have opportunity to influence religious doctrine; and the impact of migration on the religious lives of both women and men.

Part 1

Women, gender equality and religion between past and present

ONE

Gender equality in different readings of Islam in post-revolutionary Iran^*

Marziyeh Bakhshizadeh

Introduction

In recent years, the study of the relationship between religion and social change as well as the relationship between religion and women's rights has been the subject of many studies and literature. In the context of Islam, there have been many debates on this topic since, in such communities and countries, Islamic laws directly affect women's lives. Women's movements in Islamic countries, despite having a long history, have not achieved much progress in their quest for gender equality (Abu Zayd, 1999, pp 106–9). For instance, an overview of the history of Iranian women's struggles to gain basic human rights illustrates that today, after more than 100 years of efforts, women are still striving to make polygamy illegal, to have unconditional rights to education, to work, to travel outside the country, to transfer their Iranian nationality to their non-Iranian husbands and their children, to have the right of custody of their children, and to be recognized as citizens with equal rights. Throughout their struggles, they have been faced with opposition that argues that women rights must be 'in conformity with Islamic criteria', which is demonstrated in several articles of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran¹.

The question that arises here is whether Islam legitimates a discriminatory perspective and laws against women. Accordingly this chapter intends to investigate women's rights in the main currents of Islam and how women's rights and self-agency of women in various interpretations of Islam are affected by social changes in Iran. To enter into this discussion, it is important to take into account that Islam is not a monolithic and homogeneous religious tradition (Mojtahed Shabestari, 1384/2006). There are different interpretations of Islam which are categorized in this research in three schools of thought based on their understanding of how compatible Islamic laws are with a specific time and space. Accordingly, this chapter considers different interpretations of Islam within a spectrum; on the far right are fundamentalists, in the middle are reformists, and on the far left are secular; each having diverse views on the legitimacy and applicability of all Islamic laws in modern times, and thus having various perspectives on justice and women's rights.

^* This chapter is a synopsis of my dissertation published by Barbara Budrich Publishers and titled Changing Gender Norms in Islam between Reason and Revelation.

For this purpose, the chapter focuses on different interpretations of Islam within the context of post-revolutionary Iran, where an Islamic government has been established since the 1979 revolution, and claims that all articles of the Constitution, as well as all other laws and regulations, are based on Islamic criteria. This led to a discourse among different interpretations of Islam in Iran. Gender equality and women's rights in modern society have been one of the most important subjects in the debate among various readings of Islam. Accordingly, this discourse in Iran presents a foundation for the investigation of women's rights in the main currents of Islam, which surpasses the regional dimensions of Iran and represents the discourse in the Islamic world. Therefore, Iran not only represents different interpretations of Islam, but also reflects the discourse and debate on women's rights among different interpretations of Islam in the Islamic world and provides an understanding of how social changes affect the interpretations of Islam and, in general, the religiosity of women's lives and self-agency in the contemporary world. Therefore, to gain a better understanding of different interpretations of Islam and their view of women's rights, this chapter focuses on the current discourse among various readings of Islam in Iran.

This chapter, after presenting a literature review on women's issues in different interpretations of Islam in some Islamic countries, proceeds to a theoretical discussion of the relationship between structure and individual based on Giddens' Structuration Theory (Giddens, 1991a) to analyse the main currents of Islamic thought through a sociological perspective. To achieve this purpose, the chapter employs a comparative method as a tool of analysis to attain a 'concept-formation' by focusing on similarities and contrasts among cases (Collier, 1993, p 105). This chapter intends to compare the perspectives of the main currents of Islamic thought on women's rights and equality in order to explore similarities and differences of these perspectives, as well as to achieve a typology towards a better understanding and explanation of women's rights in various interpretations of Islam. Finally, this chapter concludes with a comparison of women's equality and self-agency in various readings of Islam.

Literature review

Gender equality, interpreted as equal access to resources and opportunities for everyone regardless of gender, is recognized as crucial in the global concept of justice. In relation to religion, gender equality is often rejected because of local cultural value systems; therefore, the subject of Islam and gender equality has become a popular issue in several fields of human sciences. Studies relating to women's rights and gender equality are generally based on three interpretations of Islam: fundamentalist, reformist and secularist. This section briefly introduces literature on women's issues in some Islamic societies in Asia based on these three interpretations. Restricted to no single region, this section considers women's positions in different Islamic societies; however, it is not meant to take a reductive perspective on women's status in Islamic societies or to reduce other variables of nationality, ethnicity, economics, geography and culture to only one variable of religion. This section focuses more on how women in some Islamic societies relate their self-agencies and self-definition to their interpretations of Islam. In this way, we can achieve a better understanding of the impact of social changes on the interpretation of Islam, religiosity and self-agency of women.

Studies on women's issues in fundamentalist interpretations

Islamic fundamentalism seeks a worldview based on a golden age and 'utopian and past-oriented' perspective (Eisenstadt, 1996, cited in Moghissi, 1999, p 71) through fulfilment of Islamic laws in a contemporary society without any adjustment to the contemporary needs of human beings. Despite significant regional and political differences among Islamic fundamentalist movements, they have certain similar features. Fundamentalist movements are considered as opposed to modern, secular values, anti-democracy and anti-feminist; however, they are not against modern living conditions (Moghissi, 1999, p 76). They follow certain policies concerning matters of family and gender relations by trying to turn women to practise more traditional roles. These methods include encouraging procreation, veiling of women, segregation of the sexes, control over female sexuality, and submission to patriarchal values (Afary, 1997).

One remarkable point that must be considered regarding fundamentalism is that Muslim women in different countries have also participated in reconstruction of fundamentalism, and it is not solely imposed on women by men (Afary, 1997). Women are attracted to fundamentalism for several reasons, including the emphasis on family and the priority of raising children (Afary, 1997). Some women might have more interest in traditional culture and show a willingness to accept the apparently secure patriarchal values to gain the husband's loyalty and economic support, including support for their children (Kandiyoti, 1988). This willingness can be related to the insecurities of the structure of society, such as unemployment, the low status of jobs for women, lack of childcare, and responsibility for household services for children and the elderly (Ruthven, 2007).

However, women's positions in a fundamentalist community are in a transitional phase, so that women are no longer largely confined to the home, but gradually undertake active roles and participate in public and business lives (Ruthven, 2007). In this transitional period, women apply fundamentalist norms to achieve some personal autonomy and subjectivity in building the Islamic society, which is another reason that women support the fundamentalist movement. An example is subjectivity of women and their personal choice for veiling (Mahmood, 2005). Accordingly, some argue that veiling of women, although it restricts women's individual freedom, provides women with more opportunities to access education and employment, to work as members of political organizations, and to participate in public spaces (Bahramitash and Esfahani, 2011). Furthermore, veiled women in Muslim countries face less sexual harassment in society. The veil can protect women from sexual harassment in various forms, such as touching, fondling, stalking and derogatory comments on the streets, in buses and in work places, for which women not only have no recourse by law, but also are accused of having seduced the men (Abu Odeh, 1993). The policy of segregation and compulsory veiling of women in Iran on the one hand imposed restrictions on social and economic activities of women; on the other hand, such policies reassured conservative religious families that education of their women would not cause religious degradation (Bahramitash and Esfahani, 2011, p 99). In this way, the education of women became an accepted norm, so that two decades after the revolution there was a 23% increase in the number of women taking nationwide university entrance exams, with 65% of girls passing the test. Education gave young women proper justification to postpone their marriage (Bahramitash and Esfahani, 2011, p 100) as well as enabling them to become much more involved in employment and even civil society and gradually gain self-agency and more control over their lives, despite the prevalence of traditional roles for women based on fundamentalist interpretation of Islamic texts.

Studies on women's issues in reformist interpretations

Although fundamentalism imposed patriarchal authority on women, women have gradually attained individual autonomy and agency to rethink religious traditions, to reject gender relations and to challenge the patriarchal tradition in Islam. A new consciousness about women's discourse emerged and is known as 'Islamic feminism'. Islamic feminists reclaim an ethical vision of the Quran that liberates women and insistently enjoins equality and justice. This new strategy is aimed at a rereading of the Quran outside of the traditional, patriarchal interpretation for the advancement and empowerment of Muslim women. Badran (2005) identifies Islamic feminism as a new discourse within feminism. In her point of view, religion is not monolithic and static and there is the possibility for change within an Islamic framework. Moghadam (2002) further argues how Islamic feminism could be regarded as part of a broader religious reformation within the Islamic world.

Islamic feminism articulates the Quran-based idea of the equality of all human beings, irrespective of gender, race or ethnicity. In this view, the Quran does not mention specific gender roles, but it instead emphasizes the notion of mutuality of the conjugal relationship, in the way that spouses are regarded as each other's protectors or mutual helpers. This idea holds further that specific gender roles and the hierarchical order for women and men in the family are social and cultural constructions in the name of Islam (Badran, 2005).

Islamic feminism is not restricted to a definite region, but it is particularly evident where fundamentalism was strongest (Badran, 2005, p 7). By the end of the 1990s in Iran, the debate on Islamic feminism was especially prevalent among scholars who recognized the potential within Islamic discourse and the Islamic Republic of Iran to develop and improve women's positions (Najmabadi, 1998). Islamic feminism presented a vision of an 'ideal Islamic society' and women's roles within that society, which enabled them to criticize the past, present and traditional Islam (Paidar, 1996).

Political conditions after the presidency of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (1989–97), particularly during the era of the presidency of Seyed Mohammad Khatami (1997–2005), were characterized by a more moderate interpretation of Islamic texts regarding women's rights and provided a platform for Islamic feminism which ultimately caused a few amendments in laws in favour of women in Iran. In this era, more journals and magazines (including those for women) emerged and brought different women's issues into public discourse, despite the censorship and threat of losing publication licences (Sadeghi, 2010).

Civil society prospered in Khatami's era with more freedom of the press, the closer coordination of all women activists, and the opening of the Centre for Women's Participation. The centre had the task of empowering women to run non-governmental organizations in order to reinforce women's participation in the sociopolitical, economic and cultural process of civil society and to provide women with more freedom in the public sphere (Sadeghi, 2010). Many women's groups sought to participate in various international meetings and conferences, particularly in Asia. These opportunities allowed Iranian women to share their experiences with other women activists, to gain new insights about women's issues in other regions, and to enter the global women's movement (Tohidi, 2002). Khatami also promoted women's rights by appointing women to significant political positions. Masoumeh Ebtakar, the first female vice-president of Iran, was appointed as head of the Department of Environment, and Zahra Shojaee was appointed as the director of the Centre for Women's Participation. These appointments led to a change in public attitudes and behaviour to take women's work more seriously (Tohidi, 2002).

However, only a small number of legal reforms were passed during Khatami's presidency. These limited reforms are especially surprising, as the sixth Parliament had 13 female representatives, who aimed to remove the obstacles hindering women's progress. The minimum age of marriage and the age of penal responsibility for girls were increased from nine to 13 years, although girls as young as nine could be married with the permission of the court. Another reform lifted the ban on unaccompanied single women studying abroad on government scholarships. Divorced women were granted custody of boys and girls up to seven years of age (the previous law entitled mothers to have custody of boys up to two years and girls up to seven). Decisions about custody of children after the age of seven were given to the court; however, other articles and reforms that promoted women's rights provided by the sixth Parliament were rejected by the Council of Guardians² (Koolaee, 2012). Another reform included the 'law on insurance for women', which was passed by the sixth Parliament and ratified by the seventh. The law aimed to entitle women to family pro...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of figures, tables and appendices
• Notes on contributors
• Editors' Introduction
• Part 1: Women, gender equality and religion between past and present
• Part 2: Identities, women's movements and religion
• Part 3: Contemporary women's religious experiences