The Problems of Gender Equality: A Reconstruction of Islamic Doctrine

Abstract

Women are born to be leaders, yet there still have been many disputations which grounding their arguments based on Al-Qur’an and Sunnah. However, the study on women’s leadership needs to be reconstructed arguing that the traditional interpretations are no longer suitable in this changing times. Hence, this paper aims at advocating women position and their leadership in Islam. In addition, this paper also serves as a re-actualisation of the concept of Islam and also interpretation and re-understanding of the Qur'an and al-Hadith to provide opportunities for women associated with the concept of their equality with men. Furthermore, this paper attempts to reconstruct the Islamic doctrine of women's leadership seen from the perspectives of the Qur’an, al-Hadith, fiqh, tasawwuf, siyasah, and history. The consideration of hermeneutical aspect of normativity and historicity is a necessity in the contextual, comprehensive, and holistic interpretation of the text, since it can be stated that there is no compelling reason or argument that can reject women's leadership. Thus, it is found that principally there was no strict prohibition in Islam that could reject women's leadership in various fields.