Challenging the clergy’s monoclinic interpretational power, Islamic feminists in Iran, by emphasizing the historical context of the holy texts and reformulating Islamic concepts and law from a “feminist” perspective, are developing a new direction in rethinking gender in Islam. By opening the doors of interpretation of sacred texts and debates on women issues to other groups than Muslims, they have braked with reactive gender conservatism and West phobia prevailing among fundamentalists, and have embarked on connecting themselves with Western feminism and weaving new textual connections between Muslim women and Western feminism.
The article got recognition as the Honorable Mention for the Journal of Feminist Studies of Religion’s New Scholar Award for 2006.