Human Rights, Feminism and the Muslim Woman’s Identity

The concept of human rights in Islamic teaching is rooted in the dual-notion of human-divinity as the first is combined with dignity, while mankind is a reflection of divinity. Islam teaches that man is created by a transcendental God who favours no person over another except in terms of piety and perfect faculties. In a bid to introduceIslam, several contemporary Muslim scholars have sought to demonstrate that it was Islam that laid the foundations for human rights, by asserting the supremacy of the value of justice and the principle of human value. Some efforts have been aimed at developing a purely Islamic discourse on human rights, to the exclusion of manyspecifically feminist concerns. Islam reserves an elevated position for women in general, and fosters a sophisticated view for her as an individual; a daughter is an adored member of society, a wife is respected for her chastity through marriage and is awarded a status of dignity when she is blessed with the role of motherhood. It is logical to assume that the Muslim woman’s identity cannot be concluded from certain practical laws, as these details do not reflect the general position of the Muslim womanin the Islamic worldview (Weltanschauung). Nevertheless our intention is to introduce thought provoking ideas based on our previous theory1 and combine it here with an Ijtihadi linguistic approach through which one aims to achieve a mere accurate understanding of the truth.