Islamic Feminism Twenty Years On: The Economy Of A Debate And New Fields of Research

In the intellectual and academic circles of the 1990s, the expression “Islamic feminism” simultaneously came into use in a number of different places around the globe. It first appeared in Iran, where a number of periodicals argued that clerics’ sexist interpretations of religious texts had been incorporated into Islamic law. These publications spread works of Koranic interpretation (tafsir) by men and women alike as well as discussions of Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) affirming women’s rights. In particular, this school of thought asserted the right to engage in interpretation (ijtihad) that promoted gender equality, new roles for women in religious ritual and practice and changes in penal and family law and legal and political practice..