The rights of women in Islam have been a heavily debated topic throughout history, and particularly in our current moment. A prevalent idea amongst many Muslims and non-Muslims is that women are somehow worth less than men in Islam, and thus afforded less rights. Dr. Tabbara sets out to disprove this idea, advocating for a reanalysis of key scriptures in Islam in order to clear these misconceptions and understand the reality of the relationship between women and Islam.

Islamic traditions and laws, also known as Shariah law, are derived from three key texts: The Quran, the Hadith, and Fiqh. The Quran is the Holy Book in Islam that provides a wide range of moral and ethical principles for Islam, the Hadith are collections of the practices and sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, and Fiqh is Islamic jurisprudence. Each of these parts are key in forming a human understanding of Shariah law and creating specific legal rulings and moral prescriptions for a Muslim's daily life. The main concern with the interpretations of Fiqh however, as Dr. Tabbara puts it, is that the majority of the interpretations the Muslim world relies on today were made by men in the Middle Ages. Therefore what is called Shari'ah and portrayed as divine, is actually Fiqh, and human made. Given the errors that can arise with these possibly biased interpretations, Dr. Tabbara calls for a deconstruction and recentering of Fiqh.

Why is it so important to reexamine Fiqh? An example Dr. Tabbara gives is the concept of Diyya, or blood compensation. Men have interpreted the Fiqh as the diyya of women being half of that of a man. This interpretation has then been used to justify the idea that a woman's worth in general is worth half that of a man. Such Fiqh opinions have an important impact on the treatment of women. With a reinterpretation of Fiqh, Islamic feminists are pushing to look at the Quran holistically and understand it in light of its context in order to rectify such misguided conceptions and actions based on them.

Islamic feminists are determined to reanalyze the Quran as women are given a much higher place in the context of early Islam than people have been led to believe. Dr. Tabbara highlights different verses from the Quran that emphasize gender equality that has unfortunately not been codified in the Fiqh or Shariah, leading to many of the gendered issues we see in the Muslim world and in Muslim communities today. She gives the example of four key issues that must be reinterpreted: inheritance, testimony, polygamy, and violence. One example is the popular notion that the testimony of a woman is worth half of that of a man's testimony- yet this interpretation of testimony ignores other verses where the testimonies of both genders are given equal weight. The fact that current Fiqh adheres to only the former verse is an inaccurate depiction of the gender equality Islam truly calls for. The negative laws that have occurred as a result of inaccurate interpretations in these key areas have led to detrimental laws and stigmas against women. Looking at the Quran holistically will help improve the Fiqh for use by future generations.

She also believes it is important to highlight the role of women at the very beginnings of Islam as leaders in their communities. Muslim women at the time of the Prophet openly engaged in the mosque, in wars, and later in religious education. They were vital in the transmission and production of religious knowledge. In fact, one-third of the Hadiths have been interpreted by women, including by the wives of the Prophet. While the role of women in transmission of Islamic knowledge ebbed over time, Dr. Tabbara is now seeing a resurgence of this transmission, with the added lens from Western forms of schooling.

Changing times for Muslims call for a reanalysis of past jurisprudence in order to ensure Muslim communities can adhere to laws in accordance with human rights standards. This is vital not only for securing gender equality in many Muslim countries and communities, but also for reclaiming the high positions women hold in Islam. Looking the Quran, the Hadith, and the Fiqh from a holistic and contextualized lens will allow for more accurate interpretations for Shariah law, as should have been the case centuries ago. The long journey of Muslim women to reclaim their rights and leadership is coming to fruition, with much anticipation for what these changes will bring.


Event Materials:


Full Audio:

Religion in International Law and International Relations Series

hosted by Professor Susanna Mancini


Nayla Tabbara is Director of the Institute of Citizenship and Diversity Management at Adyan Foundation and founding member of Adyan, Foundation for Diversity, Solidarity and Human Dignity.

She holds a PhD in Science of Religions from Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (Sorbonne-Paris) and Saint Joseph University (Beirut) and is a university professor in Religious and Islamic Studies.

She is also a muslim woman theologian and has publications in the fields of Islamic theology of other religions, Islamic Feminism, Education on interreligious and intercultural diversity, Qur'anic exegesis and Sufism. She works on curricula development (formal and non-formal) on multifaith education, inclusive citizenship and FoRB.

She has received the Gold Medal of the French Renaissance Award and the Special Jury award of the Fr. Jacques Hamel Prize (2019) and the Ecritures et Spiritualités Award for her book A woman's interpretation of Islam (2018, in French L'islam pensé par une femme).

Her publications include The spiritual path according to sufi commentaries of the Qur'an(2018), in French L'itinéraire spirituel d'après les commentaires soufis du Coran); Divine Hospitality: Christian and Muslim Theologies of the Other (2017, co-author with Fadi Daou also in Arabic, French and German); What about the other: a question for intercultural education in the 21st century (editor, 2012 in Arabic); Islamic Studies in the Contemporary world: a cross cultural challenge (2016, editor, in Arabic); and the UNESCO publication Christianity and Islam in the context of contemporary culture: Perspectives of interfaith dialogue from Russia and the Middle-East (2010, co-editor with Dimitri Spivak).