There are 6324 verses in the Quran about justice, while there are six that can legitimate dominance over women. (Dr. Ziba Mir-Hosseini)
The encounter between Islam and human rights has been the subject of impassioned and tangled debate. With the expansion of human rights discourses in the 1970s and 1980s, and the concurrent rise of Islamist political movements, adherents of the two viewed each other with growing distrust and contempt; they seemed to be polarized forces, destined to clash. But the clash is not inevitable; recent scholarship and analysis have shown how the two traditions share aims and much common ground. In this talk, Dr. Ziba Mir-Hosseini explores the political and hermeneutical challenges faced by advocates of human rights in Muslim contexts, and how the terms of the debate between Muslim legal tradition and international human rights law are changing. Dr. Ziba Mir-Hosseini is a legal anthropologist, specializing in Islamic law, gender and development, associated with the University of London. She is considered one of the leading Muslim feminists in the world, and has written several books on family law and women’s rights in the Muslim family. She has also directed award winning documentary films, amongst which is Divorce Iranian Style, where she explores the unequal treatment of women and men in the Iranian judicial system.
Wergeland Litteraturhuset Lecture by Ziba Mir-Hosseini