By Sheherazade Jaffari

Muslim women’s rights. These three words— whether uttered by religious fundamentalists, progressives, politicians, activists, believers or nonreligious people in the West or the East — have been debated, co-opted, claimed, defined and redefined, and are at the heart of some of today’s most contentious debates worldwide. Indeed, these three words are central in my own advocacy work and scholarly pursuits. A fascination for some and a threat for others, Muslim women’s rights are receiving attention worldwide – as they should.

This paper, by Mounira M. Charrad, offers a critical analysis of the scholarship on issues that constitute the core of the intellectual discourse on gender in the Middle East. These include the critique of Orientalism past and present, the exploration of the diversity within Islam; the study of states and gender with respect to symbolic representations, institutions, and kin-based solidarities; the analysis of women's agency; and the debates surrounding feminism and the veil.

ISTANBUL (TrustLaw)—When it comes to Islamic law, one short verse in the Koran poses one very big obstacle to advocates for Muslim women’s rights--but they may have found a way around it.

The key is fighting medieval interpretations of the Koran with modern scholarship, according to Dr Ziba Mir-Hosseini, a professor and legal anthropologist on Islamic law at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).

What are the evolving narratives of the Arab Spring? Hoda Elsadda reports from a conference in Cairo examining the conflicting narratives of and about the Arab revolutions, and the geopolitics of these narratives.

The Egyptian elections delivered a parliament that has one of the lowest rates of female representation in the world. Yet this is the parliament that expresses the political will of the people of Egypt. It may also be one that ignores the social realities of gender and of women’s political participation, says Hania Sholkamy.

On my way to the 8 March women’s march scheduled to take off from the Press Syndicate downtown, I overheard an animated conversation between two young men walking beside me near Ramses Street. One was almost shouting at the other, telling him, “Over my dead body would I take money from a woman; why would I do that?!