Women, Faith, and Family

Women, Faith, and Family takes an insider look at the practices adopted by the Womens Islamic Coalition, an assembly of Iranian women who embrace their faith as a principal component of their pursuit of gender justice. By using the Coalitions activism as a lens through which to view womens legal status, Samaneh Oladi examines complex questions about the extent of female agency, showing how Muslim womens 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 womens jurisprudence that challenges both Western liberalism and religious orthodoxy. Oladi provides a nuanced portrait of Iranian womens activism and their attempts to reform their legal status, challenging deep-rooted assumptions in secular feminism that there is an intrinsic discord between womens agency and their religion.