Opening Window to Equality: An Examination of Morteza Mutahharī's Views on Women in Islam

Document Type : researcher

Author
Faculty of Family Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
10.22034/scm.2026.547134.1947
Abstract
.The issue of women in Islam has been a serious and challenging topic for over a century. Many

thinkers with diverse intellectual orientations within and outside the Islamic world have addressed it. It can

be said that in Iran, Morteza Motahhari has been the most influential religious thinker in dealing with this

issue. This article employs a documentary-analytical method to examine his positions and seeks to demonstrate that, firstly, Motahhari does not place men in a superior position, believing in equality as an independent value and an Islamic principle. Secondly, while accepting the natural differences between women and men and considering the family institution as natural, he defends the different rights and duties based on the nature of both women and men. He views the rights of women and men in the family as dissimilar but equal, meaning that the relationship between rights and responsibilities of both genders in the family is balanced or complementary. Thirdly, he sees the social rights of women and men in modern societies as equal. Finally, in addition to emphasizing the principles of freedom, equality, and justice, he considers continuous ijtihad (independent juristic reasoning) through the openings that exist within the fundamental principles of juristic inference as a means for revising Islamic rulings to become fairer and responsive to women's issues. However, Motahhari's egalitarian perspective on women's social rights continues to be disregarded, despite the growing discontent among society, particularly among women, regarding political and social inequalities and their calls for legislative review and reform.

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Volume 14, Issue 56
Autumn 2025
Pages 97-135

  • Receive Date 15 September 2025
  • Revise Date 02 January 2026
  • Accept Date 02 January 2026