What is it about?
In Pakistan, Islamic law is interpreted and applied almost exclusively by men. Women have been largely excluded from formal religious legal authority — from the institutions, processes, and positions that shape how Islamic law is understood and applied in everyday life. This paper asks a direct and important question: is this exclusion actually required by Islam, or is it a historical and political choice that has been wrongly presented as religious necessity? By examining both classical Islamic jurisprudence and contemporary feminist scholarship on Islamic law, the paper argues clearly that there is no sound theological basis for preventing women from serving as Islamic jurists. The exclusion of women from religious legal authority is not God's command — it is a human construction, shaped by patriarchal assumptions that became embedded in legal institutions over centuries. The paper goes further to argue that including women as authoritative interpreters of Islamic law is not only permissible but necessary — both for the integrity of Islamic jurisprudence and for the pursuit of justice, dignity, and accountability in Pakistani society today.
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Why is it important?
Questions of gender justice in Muslim-majority societies are often framed as a conflict between Islam and modernity, or between religious tradition and women's rights. This paper challenges that framing at its root by demonstrating, through careful engagement with Islamic legal theory and classical scholarship, that the exclusion of women from religious authority is historically contingent rather than theologically required. This is a significant finding with real implications for how Islamic legal reform is debated and pursued in Pakistan and beyond. What makes this paper particularly timely is the growing movement of women Islamic scholars — muftiyyat — across the Muslim world who are claiming interpretive authority and reshaping legal discussions from within the tradition. Pakistan, with its complex interplay of religious institutions, statutory law, and gender politics, represents a critical case study for understanding both the obstacles to and the possibilities of this development. By combining feminist hermeneutics with classical usul al-fiqh, the paper speaks simultaneously to scholars of Islamic law, gender studies, South Asian politics, and religious reform. It will also be of direct relevance to legal practitioners, religious educators, policymakers, and advocates working on women's rights and legal reform in Muslim-majority contexts.
Perspectives
I wrote this paper because I believe that one of the most consequential silences in Pakistani public and religious life is the absence of women's voices from the institutions that interpret and apply Islamic law. Decisions that profoundly affect women's lives — about marriage, divorce, inheritance, custody, testimony, and moral standing — are made almost entirely by men, within institutions built by men, drawing on interpretive traditions shaped overwhelmingly by men. And this is presented, far too often and far too casually, as simply what Islam requires. What I hope this paper makes clear is that this is not what Islam requires. It is what history has produced, through identifiable social and political processes that privileged certain voices and marginalized others. That history can be examined, challenged, and changed — and Islamic jurisprudence itself provides the tools to do so. The concept of ijtihad, independent legal reasoning oriented toward justice, is not a concession to modernity. It is a core feature of the tradition. I hope this paper contributes to a broader conversation about what Pakistani religious and legal institutions could look like if women were genuinely recognized as authoritative interpreters of the tradition they have always lived, studied, and embodied. That conversation is long overdue, and I hope this article helps move it forward.
Dr. Jamil Akhtar
University of the Punjab
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Reinterpreting religious authority: Women as Islamic jurists for addressing gender justice in Pakistan, Women s Studies International Forum, May 2026, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.wsif.2026.103300.
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