Connecting Academic Scholarship on Muslim Women’s Rights to Practical Activism
Femin Ijtihad stands for "critical thinking" of gender notions and laws. Its aim is to research and share relevant and simplified academic scholarship on Muslim women's rights, to activists and organizations working at the grassroots. Over the years, academic ideas and theories have flourished the re-understanding of women's rights in law and society. These ideas are invaluable to the work of political and grassroots activists, especially in places where such information is essential yet extremely inaccessible. We hope that through our work, the ideas and arguments for gender equity can be accessed and used by the people who really need them. Sharing Our Research with Activists We research … [Read More...]
Case Law Project
For Activists and Lawyers The objective of the Program is to develop lawyers’ authority in women’s rights in Islamic law as well as their familiarity in case law and judicial opinions in South Asian courts. The program will assist lawyers on how to cite, deconstruct and confidently present women’s Islamic rights during case preparation and litigation in courts, on a series of issues such as: maintenance, rape, zina, child custody, right of mahr, divorce and others. Background There … [Read More...]
Research Program
F.I.'s Research Programs focuses on locating academic and activist articles, book chapters, or NGO-produced reports from a variety of disciplines (legal, theological, historical, anthropological, sociological, political science, and other social science methods) that analyze arguments on notions of exegesis of Islamic texts; contemporary legal reforms in Muslim-majority societies; various forms of Muslim women’s resistance; Muslim women in literature; and programs that empower men … [Read More...]
Academic Analyses
The Role of Men in Islamic States
Excerpt: Men need to be held accountable so that their actions and attitudes are examined also in the light of social and cultural norms, policies and practices, and not just biology. Norms, policies and practices can and do change; Women and men need to work together for greater gender equality and not merely blame each other for the inequalities and inequities. This means that men's awareness needs to be raised concerning the causes and results of their attitudes and actions on the … [Read More...]
Case of Gulnaz: A Legal Analysis
When 5000 signatures promulgated a presidential decree from Karzai to release Gulnaz, women's organizations were shocked at the generous options that given to Gulnaz by justice officials: either remain in prison or marry her rapist. The choices presented were shamelessly justified and draped with sympathy that in a country like Afghanistan, those were Gulnaz's best options. The crime of rape, is one that remains under-reported and often when reported, wrongly conflated with zina … [Read More...]
Petition to Stop Stoning in Afghanistan
Click on the link below to access a legal analysis of this issue: Stop Stoning, Islamic Legal Analysis Background and Key Points KEY POINTS 1. Running away is not the equivalent of zina, nor can it be regarded as proof of zina. According to the Quran, zina is proved through the unequivocal testimonies of 4 male, credible Muslim witnesses to the actual act of penetration. Moreover, the testimonies must corroborate with each other as to the actual act, taking place at the same location … [Read More...]
Toolkit: Re-reading Quran 4:34, on wife beating
Background Tawhid is a concept that establishes the pre-eminence of God. This is the foundational principle of Islam; no one person is superior over another and God is superior over all. Therefore, the dominance of men over women is based on a very arbitrary hierarchy that is contrary to the concept of Tawhid. Male authority and female servility diminishes the absoluteness of God’s Sovereignty and it also contradicts the Qur’an’s repeated depiction of the ideal marital relationship as … [Read More...]
What does women’s empowerment really mean?
When women resist, this is an indication that the relationships between them and those who dominate them,are shifting and changing. But sometimes, their resistance is not just a reaction against those who dominate them. We should not always think of women’s resistance as an opposition against men. Sometimes their resistance is an attempt to participate in the market (being able to buy products and services as a way of improving their lives) or participate in the activities of the middle … [Read More...]
