A Critique of Ziba Mir-Hosseini’s Humanistic Ethic of Social Justice

Ziba Mir-Hosseini employs feminist theory and global human rights principles to promote and implement legal changes to Islamic law to achieve gender equality. She proposes the pursuit of an alternative “sacred spiritual project” as a means to advance gender equality through these legal reforms. To achieve this goal, four underlying assumptions inform her work that are essential for her spiritual project to be successful. (Mir-Hosseini's approach includes: ۱) Advocating religion's adaptation to societal changes, prioritizing individual autonomy over religious demands. ۲) Applying social constructionism to challenge binary gender concepts and traditional roles. ۳) Asserting that Orientalism influenced male scholars' misinterpretation of Islam's sacred texts. ۴) Embracing Western individualism to counter Traditionalist or Neo-Traditionalist Islamic teachings while overlooking Western women's sexualization experiences in her pursuit of equality. The possible consequences of her philosophy include that it might aid secularization and syncretic tendencies within the sphere of Muslim women; it might emphasize a personal interpretation of religious texts leading to distrust of male authority; it might intersect with evolving attitudes towards gender roles, family dynamics, and women’s rights within society, which may affect Muslims and their families as a whole. It might contribute to tensions already there among women.