Azizah al-Hibri's "Introduction to Muslim Women's Rights"

Al-Hibri, Azizah. "An Introduction to Muslim Women's Rights." Windows of Faith: Muslim Women Scholar-activists in North America. Webb, Gisela, ed. (Syracuse: Syracuse UP, 2000).

Azizah al-Hibri obtained her PhD and J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. She is the founding editor of Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy and president and founder of KARMAH: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights. Currently a professor at the University of Richmond, al-Hibri has been a Fulbright scholar who has written extensively on Muslim women’s rights and human rights in Islam.  Her other works include “An Islamic Perspective on Domestic Violence” (give book or journal title; if journal, then also date) and “Redefining Muslim Women’s Roles in the Next Century” (same as previous). 

In "An Introduction to Muslim Women’s Rights,” Azizah al-Hibri presents the argument that Muslim jurists, the primary interpreters of Islam, are, like other humans, products of their societies and are therefore prone to interpreting the Quran and Islamic law in the patriarchal context in which they lived. As legitimate as this observation is, she argues,  it is overlooked by the majority of Muslims because of their acceptance of the patriarchal interpretations of Islam. Al-Hibri centers her argument on the concept of tawhid, or the belief in a single God, and on shirk, the opposite of tawhid and the belief that someone else’s will is equal or superior to God’s will. She asserts that God emphasizes His Oneness throughout the Quran and tells humans that He created them from one nafs (soul); this reemphasizes the oneness and equality of all humans, regardless of their gender. Further, she maintains, in God’s own words, the best and most honored in the eyes of God is the one most pious, a reminder to humans that gender plays no role in inferiority and superiority—only piety does.  Referring to the “arrogant reasoning” that men are naturally better than or superior to women as “Satanic logic,” she states that Satan was relegated from a sublime position to the lowest one possible because he believed himself to be naturally superior to Adam. Equally important to al-Hibri is the Islamic philosophy and importance of change:  in order for the status of Muslim women to improve, it is only reasonable—and necessary—that Muslims delve into this principle in order to figure out how to permit positive change, which should be gradual as opposed to radical. She also reminds Muslims that God’s purpose in making divine laws was to advance public interests; hence any rulings that are harmful to society at large should be scrutinized for alternative interpretations.  In her view, the concepts of guardianship, maintenance, polygyny (marriage of a man to multiple women), and divorce are among the rulings that need to be re-evaluated and re-read in context in order for Muslim societies to bestow on women the rights that Islam has guaranteed them.