A Comparative Review of Women's Rights Legislation in Pakistan and Iran in the Light of Islamic Teachings

Abstract

In this review paper, a comparative doctrinal and socio-legal analysis of women’s rights laws in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran is provided with regard to these laws being compared to the normative standards set out in Islamic teachings. While both nations subjugate positive law to the Islamic criteria constitutionally, these nations come from a different jurisprudential basis wherein Pakistan relies on the Sunni Hanafi fiqh while Iran relies on the Twelver Ja’afari Shia fiqh. This paper will analyze its subject matter under the dichotomy provided in modern Islamic studies between sharia, which refers to the unchangeable Islamic divine law, and the humanly-made laws called fiqh. It traces Pakistan's oscillating legislative history from the reformist Muslim Family Laws Ordinance of 1961, through the regressive Hudood Ordinances of 1979, to the re-liberalising Protection of Women Act of 2006 and subsequent anti-honour-killing and anti-rape statutes. It focuses on the drastic turnaround from the progressive Family Protection Law of 1967 in Iran following the revolution, gender-based provisions of its Civil Code and Islamic Penal Code of 2013, compulsory veiling laws, and gradual reforms like that of the nationality law of 2019. Comparison of each of these issues related to marriage, divorce, inheritance, custody, violence against women, education, employment, and political participation shows that codification "in conformity with Islam" has not brought any gender equality in either country since both are placed at the bottom level of the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index. It is argued in the paper that it is not the teachings of Islam, rather patriarchal interpretation of it through legislation and lack of consistency between legislative reform and social reality that is the real problem.