Jewels of Allah: The Untold Story of Women in Iran by Nina Ansary

Author:Nina Ansary [Ansary, Nina]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
ISBN: 9780986406423
Publisher: Revela Press
Published: 2015-06-24T22:00:00+00:00

A UNIQUE BRAND OF FEMINISM

The seeds of a women’s liberation crusade sown over a century ago in Iran blossomed into a unique brand of feminism during a most unexpected era. As the reformist platform gained increasing support during the Khatami era, a distinctive feminist movement was born. Energized by a new spirit of tolerance within the country and by an eclectic variety of post-revolutionary women’s publications, women began to identify with a growing movement that defined itself under the banner of various labels, including “women’s rights advocacy,” “Islamic feminism,” “secular feminism,” and “indigenous feminism.”30

In its broadest definition, feminism refers to the array of movements and ideologies “advocating women’s rights on the grounds of sexual equality,”31 and it has come to be regarded by many scholars as harmonious with an interpretation enabling “women to maintain their religious beliefs while promoting a more egalitarian Islam.”32 Today, “Islamic feminism,” a term initiated by female expatriates, flourishes as the predominant paradigm within Iran among both devout and secular women who seek equality within the bounds of religious scriptures.33 Islamic feminism aims to dismantle the dominant gender precepts—that is, those passages in the Koran that justify the denigration of Iranian women and are then objectified in divine law.34

Scholars have debated the compatibility of the essentially Western ideology known as feminism with the formulation of an indigenous definition that is based only partially on that ideology. This new brand of feminism, which seeks to break the bonds of tradition through reinterpretation of Koranic passages, has been both simultaneously praised and criticized by scholars in Iran and abroad. Writers including Nayereh Tohidi, Afsaneh Najmabadi, Haleh Afshar, Valentine Moghadam, and Ziba Mir-Hosseini support the objective of Islamic feminism: the alteration of misogynist formulations within sacred manuscripts. They applaud this new directive for “expanding legal, literary and gender consciousness,” thus authorizing a woman’s right to ijtihad (independent reasoning) with respect to religious interpretation.35 For women to actively pursue the authority to alter what has historically been regarded as divinely ordained in the Koran is extremely significant, particularly for religious women. Endorsement by prominent female writers of a revisionist approach to religious scripture not only aims to diminish clerical authority but “to recapture both the purity and vitality of Islam that existed at its inception.”36

At the opposite end of the ideological spectrum are scholars Haideh Moghissi, Hammed Shahidian, and Sharzad Mojab, who assert that Islamic feminism is essentially “a compromise with patriarchy.”37 This group believes that a “religion based on hierarchy” is insufficient, particularly in its neglect of broader social issues, including sexuality and personal autonomy.38 For example, Shahidian maintains:

If feminism is a movement to abolish patriarchy, to protect human beings from being prisoners of fixed identities, to contribute towards a society in which individuals can fashion their lives free from economic, political, social and cultural constraints, then Islamic feminism proves considerably inadequate.39

Nonetheless, other historians assessing “women’s responses to patriarchy” acknowledge that educated Muslim women, along with their secular counterparts and enlightened intellectuals, have been a significant force in constructing many of the early arguments concerning Islam, gender, and equality.

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