Catherine Shaw is a freshman planning to major in International Comparative Studies (specializing in the Middle East with Farsi as her language specialization). She is interested in the Middle East, national security policy, and comparative religion.
An earlier version of this essay was originally written for the Geopolitics and Culture FOCUS course, “Heroes and Villains: Dissidence in the Middle East,” taught by Dr. Didem Havlioglu.
The place for feminism in Judaism and Islam is tenuous. This paper will explore how the core tenets of contemporary feminism can survive within Judaism and Islam, two religions with particularly strong patriarchal traditions of scriptural interpretation. These traditions do not make the two religions fundamentally (i.e. textually or scripturally) incompatible with feminism and gender equality. Closer examination of sacred texts (through hermeneutical, or methodologically interpretive, analysis), historical practices, and contemporary movements within both Judaism and Islam will reveal that feminism can indeed exist quite successfully within these religions. Our study will center on some key modern thinkers, including the feminist theologian scholars Amina Wadud, Irit Koren, and Susan Weiss, who have used hermeneutics to carve out scripturally legitimate space for feminism in their respective religions. Our analysis of these scholars’ rigorous reinterpretations of religious texts will show us that feminism can exist cohesively within Judaism and Islam.
Judaism
We will start by examining feminism within Orthodox Judaism through the writings of Susan Weiss and Irit Koren. It is well-known that the rights of Orthodox Jewish women–—to marry and divorce, for instance—are severely limited. Most observers of Orthodox Judaism understandably conclude that the limited role for women was foreordained by that sect’s strict interpretation of scripture. Susan Weiss’s work, however, challenges that notion. Weiss uses civil tort law (that is, law regarding wrongful acts that damage another individual) together with Jewish law (halakhah) to arrive at a religiously justifiable theory under which women can initiate a religious divorce, or get. As a note of context, in Orthodox communities today, only a man can formally request a divorce. This leaves agunot, or women whose husbands refuse to let them divorce, in a tenuous social position which deprives them of civil rights shared by many of their peers (this issue is most prominent in Israel).
Weiss holds up the tort of “Get refusal” as a creative and powerful tool for combating the strictness of Orthodox divorce law the halakah. (Weiss, 2012, pp. 121). She highlights real-life examples of Israeli women who have successfully leveraged tort claims to create financial consequences for husbands who refuse to grant a divorce. Based on the “Get refusal” idea, women have gone to state courts in Israel with the argument that they are being financially or reputationally harmed because their husbands will not grant them a divorce and won their cases. “Get refusal” is becoming legal precedent in Israel, and it is become more challenging for men to use the male prerogative of the get to keep wives in marriages against their wishes. By reframing a husband’s religiously-sanctioned refusal to grant a divorce as a civil wrong, Weiss demonstrates how secular law can serve as a counterbalance to inequitable religious laws. The result safeguards civil rights—securing divorces for many women trapped in difficult or abusive marriages—without infringing unduly upon religious law. After all, civil torts emerged long after concepts like the Get were first invented by rabbis.
At the other end of marriage in Orthodox Judaism, Irit Koren has examined how women have reshaped inequitable Orthodox wedding rituals. Koren notes that women have asserted greater pre-marital agency by challenging the traditional norms of Orthodox marriage. Women have demanded that both bride and groom exchange rings under the huppah (the canopy in Jewish weddings), contrary to cultural precedent. The mutual act of bride and groom each presenting rings under the huppah, though symbolic, challenges the traditional notion of the groom “acquiring” the bride (additionally, some couples have chosen to circle each other under the huppah rather than the bride alone circling the groom, to similar effect). Women have also started drafting prenuptial agreements, including divorce rights, to ensure equality in Orthodox marriage contracts (Koren, 2012, pp. 217-219). These actions balance feminist ideals with religious traditions, emphasizing women’s agency within religious frameworks. Weiss and Koren’s works demonstrate how women in Judaism are addressing patriarchal practices—legally or otherwise—by working within the system to create meaningful change. Their approaches highlight the potential for feminist principles to coexist and thrive within religious traditions through reinterpretation and reform, including both concerted effort by women themselves and by the intervention of states and secular law.
The Jewish feminist Judith Plaskow also adopt hermeneutical approaches to challenge patriarchal interpretations of sacred texts. Plaskow, one of the first Jewish feminist theologians, focused on amplifying women’s voices in Jewish traditions (Adler, 2021). Plaskow argues that many male-dominated interpretations of religious texts which have marginalized women do not reflect the original meaning of those texts or the core ethical principles of the religion. She emphasizes the importance of reclaiming women’s roles in Jewish rituals, theology, and leadership in a manner very similar to Weiss.
Movements advocating for female rabbis in Reform and Conservative Judaism, and more recently in Modern Orthodoxy, illustrate how feminist principles have reshaped religious leadership. These movements align with Koren’s and Weiss’s writings on the evolving roles of women within Judaism. Additionally, activist groups like Women of the Wall, which fights for equal prayer rights at the Western Wall, highlight the ongoing efforts of Jewish feminists to address gender inequities in religious practices.
Islam
In Chapter 4 of her book Qur’an and Woman, Amina Wadud makes arguments similar to those of Koren and Weiss, mutatis mutandis, for Islam. Wadud asserts that the core tenets of Islam are not only compatible with feminism but actually provide a strong foundation for it. Through hermeneutical analysis of the Qur’an Wadud demonstrates how Islamic principles of equity, justice, and the moral agency of all believers align with feminist ideals. She argues that patriarchal interpretations of the Qur’an have resulted from male-dominated historical contexts far more than the divine message itself (Wadud, 1999, pp. 63).
One of Wadud’s key arguments is that Islam’s ethical framework inherently supports gender justice. She cites verses such as Qur’an 33:35, which explicitly affirms the equality of men and women in terms of faith, moral rewards, and accountability: “Indeed, the Muslim men and Muslim women, the believing men and believing women… the men who remember Allah often and the women who do so—for them Allah has prepared forgiveness and a great reward.” Wadud uses these verses to argue that the scriptural foundation of Islam promotes gender equity, and, further, to reveal that any deviation from this is a result of the cultural influences of the patriarchy.
Like Weiss, Wadud advocates for reform within the existing structures of religion rather than dismantling them. Her call to reopen the doors of ijtihād (independent reasoning) and hermeneutical analysis invites fresh interpretations of sacred texts, particularly those concerning gender roles and women’s rights. By using the Qur’an’s ethical framework, Islamic feminists like Wadud demonstrate that feminism and Islam are not incompatible, but intertwined. Wadud reasserts the historical context of Qur’anic revelation. She argues that many ostensibly patriarchal verses were actually written to respond to specific cultural norms of 7th-century Arabia—therefore, they should not continue to be interpreted universally. For instance, while some Qur’anic verses grant men a greater share of inheritance, Wadud interprets this as a reflection of the economic realities of the time rather than a divine, unalterable endorsement of unequal distribution of property.
In Islam, feminist scholars and activists have worked to reclaim leadership roles for women (similar to the female rabbi movement and Women of the Wall in Judaism). While women have historically been excluded from formal religious leadership in Islam, modern Islamic feminist movements have called for greater female participation in scholarship, mosque leadership, and public religious discourse. Wadud herself famously led mixed-gender congregational prayers in 2005, sparking controversy. The act symbolized the growing demand for gender equality in religious spaces. That it was performed by a religious scholar herself further confirms that feminism is not incompatible with Islam.
In short, the core tenet of Islamic feminism is that the message of Islam supports feminism, but patriarchal interpretations of religious texts have obscured this connection (Shahin, 2020). Islamic feminists argue that the Qur’an itself promotes gender justice and equality, but historical and cultural influences have skewed these messages. For example, early Islamic reforms during the 7th century under the leadership of the Prophet Mohammed, such as granting inheritance rights to women and abolishing female infanticide, were groundbreaking for their time. Islamic feminists emphasize these early progressive elements to argue that Islam’s original message is inherently feminist and just.
Similarly, Jewish feminists focus on historical practices and reinterpretations of Jewish law to promote gender equity. Koren’s writings on wedding rituals and Plaskow’s theological critiques demonstrate how Jewish women use the Jewish values of justice and equality to advocate for change. These shared approaches highlight the universality of feminist struggles within religious frameworks. At the same time, the challenge is different for Islam and Judaismm, as the work of Susan Weiss reveals. The greater availability of civil institutions and secular law in Israel and in Western countries with large Orthodox Jewish populations make certain feminist reconciliations with religious practice more accessible than in the Islamic world, where religious law is more integral to state authority.
The works of Weiss, Koren, and Wadud demonstrate that feminism can coexist with Judaism and Islam, despite the historical dominance of patriarchal interpretations. By engaging deeply with sacred texts and traditions, feminist scholars and activists have shown that the core scriptural values of these religions—justice, equity, and the moral agency of all individuals—align with feminist ideals. As feminists reinterpret texts and challenge patriarchal practices, they bring their faiths closer to the principles of justice and equity that lie at the heart of both traditions.
By: Catherine Shaw
References
Adler, R. (2021, June 23). Judith Plaskow. Jewish Women’s Archive. https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/plaskow-judith
Koren, I. (2012). Chapter Eight Women, Resources, and Changing the Religious System A Case Study of the Orthodox Jewish Wedding Ritual (pp. 213–240). essay, Brandeis University Press.
Shahin, F. (2020, December 17). Islamic feminism and hegemonic discourses on faith and gender in Islam. Brill. https://brill.com/view/journals/ijia/1/1/article-p27_3.xml
Wadud, A. (1999). Qurʼan and woman: Rereading the sacred text from a woman’s perspective. Oxford University Press.
Weiss, S. (2012).Chapter Four From Religious “Right” to Civil “Wrong” Using Israeli Tort Law to Unravel the Knots of Gender, Equality, and Jewish Divorce (pp. 119–135). essay, Brandeis University Press.
