Women, Faith, and Family: Reclaiming Gender Justice Through Religious Activism

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

Samaneh Oladi is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her research explores women’s faith-based activism, examining how their scholarship challenges androcentric interpretations of sacred scriptures.