ZIBA MIR-HOSSEINI, Islam and Gender: The Religious Debate in Contemporary Iran (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1999). Pp. 329.

Abstract

This book is unique in several ways. It is the product of unprecedented research collaboration between a Muslim feminist female anthropologist (Ziba Mir-Hosseini), based and educated in the West, and a Muslim feminist male cleric (Hujjat al-Islam Sayyid Muhsin Sa[ayin]id Zadih), based and educated in Islamic seminaries in Iran. For the first time, the Qom seminary (Hawzih)—the center of religious and political power of Shi[ayin]i clerics—opened its doors to a feminist female scholar, letting her engage in a face-to-face encounter on gender issues with several prominent Islamic ulema (clerical scholars). Much of the book is a transcription of dialogues between Mir-Hosseini and eminent clerics in the Iranian religious seminaries in the city of Qom. The central concern of these dialogues is the way religious knowledge is produced in Shi[ayin]i Islam and the complex relationship among the believer, religious authority, and political action.