Advancing Women's Social and Political Rights Through a Reinterpretation of Islamic Law: Ayatollah Jannaati's View of Female Political Authority in Shiite Islam

ABSTRACT One of the most important questions on which Muslim reformers have challenged traditional jurisprudence is that of the institutionalized discrimination against women, with respect to their social and political rights under Islamic jurisprudence. Traditional jurisprudents cite specific verses from the Qur'an and Hadiths and consider the political and social management of Islamic societies to be exclusive to men. Ayatollah Jannaati is one of Iran's leading Shiite Muslim jurisprudents to call for a review of women's rights, based on dynamic jurisprudence, and declares that women, just like men, may hold the highest religious, political, and social positions in Islamic countries, and enjoy equal rights. This article adopts a theological and hermeneutical approach, and references many primary sources in Persian, including Jannaati's books, articles, and interviews, to determine how the new reading of the Qur'an and Hadith, and his unique theological and epistemological presuppositions, have enabled him to issue such a fatwa regarding the political and social rights of women under Islam.