Religious intellectualism

Islamic feminism is one of the movements that developed in reaction to the revival of political Islam in post-Islamic Revolution Iran (1979). The present study attempts to seize the major nodal points around which this discourse has been formed. Using Margot Badran’s theory of the convergence of secular and Islamic feminisms, this study also explains the tenets of Islamic feminism in a country where filling the gap between the secular and the Islamic is rejected. It focuses on the analytical articles published by Zanan and Zanan-e-Emruz magazines as two prominent platforms for Islamic feminists to highlight their answers to the modern concerns of Iranian women. The results indicate that the major discursive nodes include: a) women’s Ijtihad and the re-interpretation of the holy texts with a women-friendly outlook, b) human equality exempt from sexuality, c) demands for a conventional notion of justice, and d) recognition of women’s socio-political capacities vis-à-vis their family identities.  

Religious intellectualism is a term used to refer to a group of influential thinkers in contemporary Iran. Given the diversity and dispersion of their thoughts, as well as the way they combine local and regional elements with certain global aspects, it is essential to present a general and relatively comprehensive picture of this approach. However, the eclectic nature of these thinkers makes this task challenging. This article, written primarily with the aim of introducing religious intellectualism to a non-Iranian audience, first provides a definition, general characteristics, and prominent figures in this field (Abdolkarim Soroush, Mohammad Mojtahed Shabestari, and Mostafa Malekian). It then outlines the most important issues they address and their specific approaches to those issues (such as capital punishment, human rights, abortion, and homosexuality). The challenges arising from the confrontation between these ideas and traditional ones are also briefly discussed.