Ziba Mir-Hosseini

Ziba Mir-Hosseini (born April 3, 1952 ) is an Iranian-born anthropologist . Her research deals with Islamic law and the position of the sexes in Islam .

Ziba Mir-Hosseini studied sociology at the University of Tehran until 1976 and received his doctorate in Cambridge in 1980 . She is a researcher at the Center for Middle Eastern and Islamic Law at the University of London . She is also frequently represented in the media as an expert on Iran-specific topics.

Views on the position of women in Islamic law

In The Construction of Gender in Islamic Legal Thought and Strategy for Reform, Ziba Mir-Hosseini attempts to divide Islamic legal history into what she calls traditional , neo-traditional and reformist discourses with a view to the views represented in the respective discourses Position of women in Islamic law.

As the first discourse, she describes classical Islamic law in its application into the late 19th century. This right was based on the patriarchal environment of its time and, according to Mir-Hosseini, moved further and further away from the commandments of the Koran and the practice of the Prophet , which aimed at legal equality between men and women, at the same time as the time of revelation . Above all, the author uses the metaphor of the marriage contract as a purchase, often used by classical Islamic scholars, in order to demonstrate the patriarchal character of classical Islamic marriage law, which does not correspond to the principles of revelation. She emphasizes in particular that this metaphor is indeed an appropriate description in view of the sale of the female reproductive function in the context of the marriage contract, which can be found in classical Islamic law. Two further central findings can be found in the assumption of fundamental differences between the sexes, which was the basis of classical Islamic law, as well as the impossibility of finding an access to divine revelation that also takes into account the perspective of women, since the office of legal scholar was held by men.

Mir-Hosseini describes the second discourse as the discourses of the 19th and early 20th centuries triggered by the encounter with the colonial powers. The author uses the term neo-traditionalism at this point to emphasize the conservative character of this debate, which continued to insist on a fundamental difference between the sexes, but to justify this in various ways in response to Western ideas or, where possible, to use them in Trying to reconcile or synthesize. So now conclusions for an ideal lifestyle are increasingly being drawn on a biological or psychological basis. The author sees a reception of the theses of the neo-traditionalist way of thinking by Islamist movements from the second half of the 20th century. For the author, only the reformist discourse that began in the second half of the 20th century fulfills the true content of Islamic law (sharia), which is based on divine revelation (wahy). The author states a misuse of the sharia term in that it was used as a designation for the interpretation of the law, which can actually only be called fiqh, since it is itself man-made and is therefore not of divine origin. The concrete interpretation (religious knowledge according to Abdelkarim Soroush ) of divine truth is always culturally influenced by time and represents a changing process of rapprochement. The central point of the reformist discourse lies in its emphasis on gender equality. In order to enable this a concrete legal enforcement, the author recommends a stipulation of improved possibilities of divorce for women in marriage law and, in general, greater influence of women in marriage. She also recommends improved opportunities for women in labor and training law. In terms of enforcement, it is important to refer to the Koran as well as the participation of female scholars in the interpretation of the sources.

Works

• Overview of published articles

Web link

• Web presence