Women, Faith, and Family takes an insider look at the practices adopted by the Women’s Islamic Coalition, an assembly of Iranian women who embrace their faith as a principal component of their pursuit of gender justice. By using the Coalition’s activism as a lens through which to view women’s legal status, Samaneh Oladi examines complex questions about the extent of female agency, showing how Muslim women’s access to religious resources and use of hermeneutics strengthens their position in gender negotiations. Female religious activists not only struggle against gender hierarchy and conventional paradigms but also cultivate a unique women’s jurisprudence that challenges both Western liberalism and religious orthodoxy. Oladi provides a nuanced portrait of Iranian women’s activism and their attempts to reform their legal status, challenging deep-rooted assumptions in secular feminism that there is an intrinsic discord between women’s agency and their religion.
Samaneh Oladi is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her research focuses on women’s faith-based activism, Islamic jurisprudence, and Islamic mysticism.
“In telling the story of a group of pious Muslim women in Iran and their search for gender justice through negotiation and engagement with religious sources, Samaneh Oladi significantly enlarges our understanding of the potentials and limits of women’s agency in the production of religious knowledge in Islam.”—Ziba Mir-Hosseini, author of Journeys Towards Gender Equality in Islam
"This remarkable book shows that feminist positions can arise even within the confines of the strict Shi’a Islamic culture of Iran. Written from an insider’s perspective but with the analytic clarity of an impressive scholar, it focuses on the Women’s Islamic Coalition, one of the major movements for women’s rights in the country. This insightful and well-written book should be on the required reading list of every department of feminist and Islamic studies and is a must-read for all who are concerned about the global march for human rights."—Mark Juergensmeyer, author of Global Rebellion: Religious Challenges to the Secular State
248 pp.6 x 9
9780520400450$29.95|£25.00Paper
Oct 2024