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Annotated Bibliography

Decent Essays

Wardah Behzad
POLS 3045/ HREQ 3800
March 15th, 2016
Annotated Bibliography

Suppressing women’s rights through patriarchal interpretation of Quran

Introduction:
There are various issues arising from the patriarchal interpretation of Quranic verses that have prompted much debate about the status of women in the Muslim society and the use of Quranic verses by Islamic jurists to determine Shariah law formations. The classical ways of reading and interpreting the Quran and hadith were patriarchal that extensively contribute to developing sexual and gender discrimination within Muslims and are the core source behind this male-dominant Islamic thinking tradition. In this annotated bibliography, I will use the works of Aziza Al-Hibri, Nawal H. Ammar, …show more content…

“An Introduction to Muslim Women’s Rights.” Windows of Faith: Muslim Women Scholar-activists in North America. Gisela Webb ed. (Syracuse: Syracuse UP, 2000).
In “An Introduction to Muslim Women’s Rights,” Azizah al-Hibri discusses how patriarchy affects the interpretation of Quran. She argues that Muslim jurists that interpreted the Quran and Islamic Law, lived in a patriarch world. Their views about men and women are based on the patriarchy in their societies, hence, their interpretation of the Quran and Islamic Law represents patriarchy. Al-Hibri argues that throughout the Quran, God emphasizes his Oneness and says that all humans were created by him from one soul. This emphasizes the concept of tawhid; there is no God but Allah and that Allah considers all human beings equal regardless of their gender. Furthermore, she argues that for Allah, the one who is the most pious is the most honorable, hence, gender plays no role and does not make one superior than the other. Moreover, she argues that considering men to be naturally superior to women is the same mistake that Satan committed. He considered himself to be naturally superior to others and refused to bow to Adam. Aziza Al- Hibri also gives suggestions for what important changes need to be made in order to improve the status of Muslim women in the society. She argues that any interpretation that may be harmful towards any member of the society should be re-evaluated, which include issues such as guardianship, polygamy and divorce, so that Muslim women are given the rights that their religion gives them. Al-Hibri’s work is useful for my research as it argues that the way jurists translated the Quran was affected by the society they lived in. Hence, they interpreted the Quran in a patriarchal context and manipulated it to validate that men are superior to

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