Legal, Hermeneutical, and Activist Considerations in Mapping the Future for Muslim Women

Perhaps the greatest challenge facing Muslim women as they proceed through the twenty-first century is the struggle to ensure that the legal regimes in their countries will afford them protections and rights as befits a gender-just society. In order to examine this issue, one must turn (a) to an investigation of late nineteenth to twentieth century developments affecting the very structure of Islamic legal regimes, (b) to scholarly efforts in rethinking the hermeneutical strategies required to re-examine the potential for gender justice in foundational texts, and (c) to local and translocal activists working for gender justice for Muslim women in their societies.