An Analysis of Muslim Women’s Rights Based on the Works of Amina Wadud, Fatima Mernissi, and Riffat Hassan

Abstract

This thesis will analyze the arguments, methods, results and contexts of Islamic feminist scholars Amina Wadud, Fatima Mernissi, and Riffat Hassan. These three women have been at the forefront of writing about the equal rights of women in Islam. Although each looks at Islam from a different scholarly lens, their work involves trying to elucidate the crucial rights Muslim women have as stated in Islamic religious texts such as the Qur’an and the ahadith, as well as the actions of the Prophet Muhammad and Muslim women in the early Islamic period. Hassan, Mernissi and Wadud’s work makes them leaders in clarifying and defining Muslim women’s rights. The goal of this thesis is to primarily analyze what these important Muslim women scholars are arguing, why are they arguing it, and how do they go about arguing it. Therefore, a detailed analysis of Amina Wadud’s Qur’an and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text From a Woman’s Perspective, Fatima Mernissi's The Veil and the Male Elite, and Riffat Hassan’s “Muslim Women and Post-Patriarchal Islam” has been done in this thesis. A plethora of other relevant books and peer reviewed articles were also referenced and researched for this thesis. All the books and articles were written in English or had an English translation. The research done for this thesis shows that there are many positive and negative critiques of Wadud, Mernissi, and Hassan’s innovative and necessary work on clarifying Muslim women’s rights within a religious framework and from a female perspective. However, what is apparent is that these three scholars have done very thorough and illuminating research which has created the opportunity for dialogue and provided valuable information about Muslim women’s agency and empowerment in Islam. It is imperative that Hassan, Mernissi, and Wadud’s findings be reexamined by the Muslim community as a way to promote equal rights for Muslim women.