PAZHUHESHNAME-YE ZANAN (WOMEN’S STUDIES)
Year:2019 | Volume:9 | Issue:4 (26)|Papers Count:7

The deep influence of religious thought on the dignity and place of women in the three Abrahamic religions, with all their differences and fluctuations, has been admitted by many scholars. Establishment of justice, rejection of discrimination, and paying attention to kindness are seen in the teachings of all three religions. In Judaism, it is difficult to evaluate the place of women due to lack of awareness of all its developments, and maybe one think that there has been a humiliating and degrading look at women in the religion, but in Christianity and Islam it can be said that great attention has been paid to the place of women both in the doctrines and in the regulation of rules, and this has led to the promotion of women dignity in the religions. Therefore, given the cultural and social conditions of the time, one can argue that religions have a positive role to play in this regard, and one can consider them in opposition to the common misogynistic traditions and customs. The mystical religious thought, as a special kind of religious thought, has had attractiveness and capabilities throughout history. Hence, in the Middle Ages, many women of various social classes were enthralled by mystical religious ideas, of which two elements of independence and leadership power are main components, and one can describe them as the pioneers of contemporary feminist schools.

In this article, the author addresses the feminist philosophies of religion in order to come to a common stream among diverse feminist philosophical and theological approaches. For this reason, the views of some feminist religious philosophers, such as Anderson, Daly, and Irigaray, have been analyzed. The views of philosophers who can indirectly influence feminist religious attitudes, such as Harding, Radik, Kristeva, Lloyd, and Butler have been also examined. Among different feminist philosophical-theological approaches, this essay achieves the one that is in harmony with Whitehead's process philosophy and Tillich’ s theory of love. The author uses the term ‘ love process’ to indicate this common trend among feminist theorists, based on the psychoanalytic maternal-feminine characteristics. The epistemology of feministic philosophy has collectivistic and other-oriented characters and establishes an intuitive link with religious issues. In harmony with the characteristics of feminine-maternal, the ontology of feminist philosophy of religion has been also formed in a birth-centered, interactive and dynamic way, and thus proves the power of love and care for God. The characteristics of the process of love and care in the philosophy of religion and feminist theology prevent the discriminationism and self-orientation of matriarchy so that the bitter experience of I/other dichotomy, or the masculinity/femininity of the Enlightenment period does not recur. Also, based on the common principle of the love process in the feminist philosophy of religion and theology, the duality of reason/faith and wisdom/love vanish.

The distinction between ‘ gender’ and ‘ sex’ is regarded as the most basic feministic assumption. Accordingly, feminists argue that many of women’ s characteristics which have been deemed as natural traits are socially constructed, so their critical and normative theories are intended to eliminate women inferiority. Some planners and scholars in the field of Iranian women studies argue that one cannot conceive the ideas of thinkers likes Allameh Tabatabaei as a rival for feminist theories or as a coherent framework for understanding, explaining, or reforming the status of women, because gender has not been a matter of interest for them. We examine the claim in details in this research. The results of this research carried out by qualitative analysis method on Allameh's works (particularly Al-Mizan), show that Allameh has sought to present coherent discussions in defending the place of women in Islamic thought and in criticizing their conditions in Islamic and modern societies, and he addresses these topics regarding most important feministic ideas. Therefore, attention to the distinction between sex and gender is one of the features of the formulation of women's problems in Allameh's thought. However, due to the rhetoricity of his speculations in Islamic and feminist teachings, one cannot regard his viewpoint as a scientific theory with the characteristics of an empirical theory.

In her book Beyond God the Father: Toward a Philosophy of Women's Liberation, Mary Daily challenges the institutionalized masculine concepts of religions, especially Christianity, about God, and shows that the image of God, drawn in religious institutions, corresponds to a patriarchal, contentious, and aggressive God. Based on feministic concepts and peacemaking teachings and also theories regarding ‘ listening’ and ‘ caring’ , she tries to offer a new image of God and new possibilities for another relationship between man and God. The new image of God and human is expressed based on existentialist and feminist ethics in a way that the unilateral dominant-dominated relation in the traditional image of religions is replaced by interaction and sympathy between God and Human. Reviewing this book and its new and considerable reflections on the elements of Christian theology giving them a new meaning in the context of feminine experience, this article presents a report on the concepts of God and Descent.

Ibn Arabi is considered as a significant figure in mysticism and Sufism. According to the studies on Sufi men and women before Ibn 'Arabi, the presence of Sufi women (such as Rā biʿ a al-Adawiyya (Rabia Basri) (d. 135-180 AH) who initiated romantic Sufism) was determining in the course of Ibn 'Arabi’ s spiritual evolution; however this fact has been almost neglected. This article narrates and explains the influence of the women on the spiritual and intellectual development of Shaikh-e-Akbar (Ibn 'Arabi). Feminine intuition as the supreme effect of God's presence and the formation of Shaikh-e-Akbar’ s theory of unity of being (waḥ dat al-wujū d), which expresses a love process and the unity of lover and beloved are the result of the presence of Sufi women. In fact this mystical monotheistic will reaches its peak by presence of the women.

It is not more than a few decades that feminist thinkers have started to work in the field of metaphysics. However, their encounter has been more critical and negative, and they limited their selves to criticize some aspects of traditional and modern metaphysics. In fact, feminine approaches to metaphysics have not offered any new foundations for metaphysics, and remain at a critical level. In this essay, we, first, review the critiques of feminist philosophers to the traditional and new metaphysical methods and contents, and then show that these critiques are, in fact, based on a very narrow definition of metaphysics or based entirely on a false understanding of this domain, and basically so-called ‘ feministic metaphysics’ is impossible or invalid. Nevertheless, one can, as I explain at the end of this paper, find deep insights in some feminists’ critiques of metaphysics which can be a good basis for a deep rereading of metaphysics and reveal some of the hidden foundations in the history of metaphysics.

In this article, through three feministic questions, I have tried to study three allegorical-philosophical treatises in the wise tradition of Muslims: The Avicenna’ s Treatise of Hayy ibn Yaqzan and two other treatises which have been directly influenced by it, i. e. Suhrawardi’ s The Story of Western Exile and Ibn Tufail’ s Hayy ibn Yaqzan, written to describe the ‘ eastern philosophy’ . The treatises, whose purpose is illustrating the path to happiness, have been in contrast with three feministic philosophical problems: the sexuality of parables, the relation between the soul and the body, and the relation between self and the other. In all three treatises, there are obvious or hidden signs of women inferiority and subordination. In all three treatises, the body is considered inferior, and the ideal connection among the components of the soul is when the rational component dominates other elements. In all three treatises, otherness is an obstacle in the path to happiness. Finally, I came to the conclusion that the path to happiness in these treatises is a rational, mature, male, rebellious, and self-taught, and happiness would be achieved only when human be deprived of all his/her human qualities.