Baroness Haleh Afshari, PhD is a renowned Middle Eastern scholar. I read a chapter in her book, “Women and Politics in the 3rd World” and I was surprised by some of the things I read. The author makes several persuasive points about the emerging, or I should say re-remerging form of Islamic feminism. But first, she makes the point to first go into
detail about what exactly is fundamentalism. This is her first point. That in order to understand what may be happening today in the Islamic world we need to realize that this is a “revivalist” attempt at trying to go back to what is considered the golden years of Islam, during the time of the prophet.

The author then goes on after she has defined fundamentalism in this context to describe the role models that Islam has for its women, most notably Khadijah, Aisha and Fatima. Each of these women was noted as exemplary standards for what the author argues are the model in Islam for women to emulate. Although some disagreement exists about the role of women and what these women did, it is unmistakable that they certainly set the standard for generations to come. The author goes on to note that there is a realization and rejection of what Islamic feminism, or at least gender roles in politics should be compared to that of Western society. She goes on to note that gender roles in the two cultures vary greatly and there is no desire to become westernized in the feminist or equal sense of the word. She argues that although there appear greater freedoms under the Shahs rule (in Iran’s case), these freedoms were corrupting and ultimately counter productive to an Islamic society. She points out that Islamic fundamental feminism is its own unique brand of political theory and indeed is more desired that what is going on the west. She states that this version of gender recognition actually give the women more a status and deems them more respectable, as opposed to the western version which apparently only classifies them as sex objects. I disagree with this assessment nor do I accept that Islamic rights for women are greater than those found in more liberal societies. It is clear still that women are severely discriminated against in the legal code and societal norms. While there may be some acceptance of this fact, it does not mean that the discrimination does not take place.

A few examples of the discrimination taking place in Iran right now are those of the Qassas Laws. The laws of retribution are clearly jaded and afford men the advantage at every turning point. Women are not allowed to be judges in the IR of Iran nor are they granted the presidency or Rahbariyat. However, there appears to be some coming around and indeed when the very same arguments are used for the causes of women in politics there is no denying the Islamic roots of the precedents cited. This fact has won over very influential players in Iran of the opposite gender and may be indeed the only way to move forward under the current regime.

Thoughts?