Monday Majlis: The QurʾÄn and Its Masculine God: A Historical Feminist Analysis
A major pursuit of hermeneutic feminists is to modify the traditional understanding of the QurʾÄn in order to present a pattern of gender equality, and consequently, enhance the status of women in Islam. While they emphasize the historical view and the non-selective approach to the QurʾÄnic verses, they deviate from these assumptions in practice. In particular, when it comes to the supernatural realm of the QurʾÄn, especially AllÄh’s character, they portray it as devoid of sexism, repression, and discrimination.
| A Centre for the Study of Islam seminar | |
|---|---|
| Speaker(s) | Zahra Mohaghegian |
| Date | 27 May 2024 |
| Time | 17:00 to 18:30 |
| Place | Online |
| Registration information | Register please on this link: https://universityofexeter.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcqduihpzkiE90GvS8Nmel8pGeLyHUyXQI6 |
Event details
Abstract
Zahra Mohaghegian is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Quranic Studies, and the Department Chair of Historical-Cultural Studies of the Quran at the Institution for Humanities and Cultural Studies, Tehran, Iran. In recent years, she has focused professionally on researching the historical gender issues in the QurʾÄn and Islamic sources and has published various books and articles in this field. Her last book is “Sexuality and Sexual Symbolisms in the QurʾÄn”, published by IHCS, a prestigious Iranian academic publisher, in 2021. The book focuses on the myth and sex/gender in the QurʾÄn, which seeks to explore the motifs among the QurʾÄnic verses and their resemblance with the ancient mythological narratives and the earlier scriptures. The article extracted from this book titled “Mother Earth in the QurʾÄn” will soon be published as a chapter of the book “Sexuality in the Scriptures” by Oxford University Press. Zahra’s current project is “History of Idea BanÄt AllÄh (Daughters of Allah) from Classic to Modern Scholarships”, which is also followed from a female perspective. In light of these historical feminist studies, Zahra hopes to make a contribution, although small, to improving the status of Muslim women in today's modern societies.
https://ihcs.academia.edu/Zahramohagheghian
https://www.ihcs.ac.ir/quranicstudies/fa/page/2117/zahra-mohagheghian
In this presentation, I show that the God of the QurʾÄn not only lacks a gender-free and universal nature but, due to the prevailing cultural context of the time, it has an all-masculine and even repressive image. To do so, I will focus on QurʾÄnic verses concerning AllÄh’s fight against the three goddesses, showing the process of their elimination and repression in the QurʾÄn. The main questions are as follows: How has gender found its way into the supernatural realm of the QurʾÄn? How are the goddesses addressed in the QurʾÄn and how are they treated by AllÄh? How does such a treatment relate to the development of the masculine system? I conclude that, without a proper analysis of the sexism within the supernatural realm of the QurʾÄn, one cannot draw on its rulings and statements to deal with issues of gender justice.
