Ayatollah Yusuf Sanei's Contribution to the Discourse of Women's Rights

Bibliographic Data

ID3285288
AuthorsAli Akbar (0000-0003-4620-9953, The University of Melbourne, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume12
Issue7
Pages535
Publication date2021-07-15
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueReligions (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/rel12070535
OpenAlexW3180250828
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited15

Ayatollah Yusef Sanei was a prominent contemporary Shia scholar whose particular methodological approach led him to issue some of the most progressive Shia fatwas on the subject of women's rights. However, the ideas he expressed in the last decades of his life have scarcely been addressed in the English language scholarship. This article explores Sanei's broader jurisprudential approach and how he applied it to analyzing and often challenging traditional Shia rulings related to gender issues. The article first differentiates Sanei's approach towards jurisprudence from established methodologies, particularly in relation to his consideration of the Sunna as secondary to the Qurʾān, his rejection of the practice of using consensus as an independent basis of legal rulings, his idea that Sharia rulings may change over time, and his strong emphasis on the Qurʾān's messages of justice and human dignity. The article illuminates how this combination led Sanei to challenge traditional ideas about men's authority over women, a fixed socio-political role for women, and men's superiority in the areas of divorce rights, testimony and worth in blood money (dīya), while concurring with earlier scholars on the unequal division of inheritance. Notwithstanding this latter exception, the article demonstrates that Sanei drew upon jurisprudential approaches in arguing in favor of equality between men and women in many areas

Dignity · Economic Justice · Fraternity · Human rights · Islam · Jurisprudence · Political science · Politics · Scholarship · Sharia · Sociology · Theology · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Gender Studies · Islamic Studies and History · Law · Marriage and Sexual Relationships · Philosophy

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