Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1 Shahid Beheshti University
2 shahid beheshti university
3 Shahid Behesti University
4 shahid behesti university
Abstract
Goal: It seems that most of the theories of women's empowerment have been formed in accordance with the idea of feminism and based on the paradigm of gender and development, which is also influenced by the idea of humanism. Therefore, it is incompatible with the characteristics of Islamic societies and cannot be considered as an intellectual foundation for the empowerment of Muslim women: Some of these reasons are: 1- Moral values and spiritual aspects of human life are not very relevant. 2- Emancipation and relativism in defining sexual identity can destroy the dignity of women. 3- Dominance of some special values by advanced countries should not be accepted without considering local culture and norms. As a result, it becomes necessary to identify a set of principles derived from divine perception to act as a foundation for empowering Muslim women. The current research sought to identify these principles.
Research method: What principles govern the Islamic understanding of gender issues? In response to this question, the researchers committed to the interpretation paradigm; Because in order to derive principles about gender issues in Islamic perception, one should also refer to the mentality and experiences of Muslim thinkers. The research question was raised in 8 focus group meetings with 32 Muslim researchers and thinkers who sought to expand Islamic perception in the matter of empowering Muslim women in their research or social activities. The role of the researchers in the focus group meetings was limited to encouraging the members to ask each other or comment on the experiences and views raised. Through open coding, the spoken evidence of the sessions was analyzed and through the participant feedback method, the validity of the findings was increased.
Findings: Six principles were found as the governing principles of Islamic understanding of the concept of gender, which were: complementarianism, dynamics in time and place, social emotion, selectivity, equality in opportunities for excellence, and competitiveness. There are internal relationships among these principles. For example, complementarianism is one of the effects of competition avoidance, or social affection is a prerequisite for providing equal opportunities for excellence.
Conclusion: The six principles obtained have a greater capacity than the three dominant-egalitarian-liberating mentalities for empowering Muslim women. The importance of context and environment, in addition to the failure of non-divine intellectual foundations in empowering women, can be counted among the reasons for this. Of course, rethinking gender according to an Islamic understanding has been the focus of researchers such as Abbasi and Mousavi (2014) and Qasimpour and Aliabadi (2017) and they have emphasized on referring to religious texts and rereading them correctly. However, the mentality and experiences of Muslim thinkers have not been analyzed. Identifying these principles can guide economic, educational, social, cultural, social, and political empowerment and act as an umbrella for the empowerment of Muslim women. Of course, the findings of this research cannot be generalized due to its qualitative nature, and in order to formalize one or more Iranian-Islamic intellectual foundations, it requires qualitative and quantitative efforts by other researchers as well.
Goal: It seems that most of the theories of women's empowerment have been formed in accordance with the idea of feminism and based on the paradigm of gender and development, which is also influenced by the idea of humanism. Therefore, it is incompatible with the characteristics of Islamic societies and cannot be considered as an intellectual foundation for the empowerment of Muslim women: Some of these reasons are: 1- Moral values and spiritual aspects of human life are not very relevant. 2- Emancipation and relativism in defining sexual identity can destroy the dignity of women. 3- Dominance of some special values by advanced countries should not be accepted without considering local culture and norms. As a result, it becomes necessary to identify a set of principles derived from divine perception to act as a foundation for empowering Muslim women. The current research sought to identify these principles.
Research method: What principles govern the Islamic understanding of gender issues? In response to this question, the researchers committed to the interpretation paradigm; Because in order to derive principles about gender issues in Islamic perception, one should also refer to the mentality and experiences of Muslim thinkers. The research question was raised in 8 focus group meetings with 32 Muslim researchers and thinkers who sought to expand Islamic perception in the matter of empowering Muslim women in their research or social activities. The role of the researchers in the focus group meetings was limited to encouraging the members to ask each other or comment on the experiences and views raised. Through open coding, the spoken evidence of the sessions was analyzed and through the participant feedback method, the validity of the findings was increased.
Findings: Six principles were found as the governing principles of Islamic understanding of the concept of gender, which were: complementarianism, dynamics in time and place, social emotion, selectivity, equality in opportunities for excellence, and competitiveness. There are internal relationships among these principles. For example, complementarianism is one of the effects of competition avoidance, or social affection is a prerequisite for providing equal opportunities for excellence.
Conclusion: The six principles obtained have a greater capacity than the three dominant-egalitarian-liberating mentalities for empowering Muslim women. The importance of context and environment, in addition to the failure of non-divine intellectual foundations in empowering women, can be counted among the reasons for this. Of course, rethinking gender according to an Islamic understanding has been the focus of researchers such as Abbasi and Mousavi (2014) and Qasimpour and Aliabadi (2017) and they have emphasized on referring to religious texts and rereading them correctly. However, the mentality and experiences of Muslim thinkers have not been analyzed. Identifying these principles can guide economic, educational, social, cultural, social, and political empowerment and act as an umbrella for the empowerment of Muslim women.
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