Ziba Mir-Hosseini

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ziba Mir-Hosseini (Persian: زیبا_میرحسینی; born April 3, 1952) is an Iranian-born legal anthropologist, specializing in Islamic law, gender and development.[1][2] She received her Ph.D. in anthropology from Cambridge University[3] and is the author of several books on Islam, gender, and the family.[4][5][6]

She has also directed two documentary films, Runaway and Divorce Iranian Style.[7]

Biography

Born to British and Iranian parents, Mir-Hosseini is fluent in English, French, and Persian, and is familiar with Arabic and Kurdish. She received her bachelor's degree in Sociology from Tehran University in 1974, and completed her Ph. D. in Social Anthropology in 1980 from the University of Cambridge. Mir-Hosseini's doctoral thesis was written about an ethnographic fieldwork in 1977 in Kalardasht, a tourist district in Iran, about how tourism and a changing economy both impacted traditional Iranian family life, and is titled "Changing Aspects of Economic and Family Structures in Kalardasht, a District of Northern Iran." Mir-Hosseini specializes in Islamic law, gender, and development and is a member of the Council of Women Living under Muslim Laws.

"Women want the same things that everyone wants. They want love, they want happiness, they want to be able to work, to be out in the world. And what's happening is, as more of these women are educating themselves, the sheer groundswell of it coming from below is forcing a change. So it's not a question of the government making concessions to these women -- it's women forcing concessions from below."
— Ziba Mir-Hosseini

Mir-Hosseini is an expert on Iranian affairs, Islamic family law, and women in the Muslim world. She frequents radio and TV programs all over the world, has been studied on many TV documentaries on Iran, participates in panel discussions and projects in the US, UK and other countries and has published various works.

In 2000, Mir-Hosseini was a jury member of San Francisco International Film Festival and became a jury member for International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival. In 2003, Mir-Hosseini became a jury member of Amnesty International DOEN Award for the best film on human rights, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA).

She has given numerous lectures on campuses such as Barnard College, Stanford University, Al-Maktoum and Princeton University. Her publications include Islam and Gender: The Religious Debate in Contemporary Iran (with Richard Tapper), A Study of Islamic Family Law in Iran and Morocco, Islam and Democracy in Iran: Eshkevari and the Quest for Reform (with Vanja Hamzic) and Control and Sexuality: the Revival of Zina Laws in Muslim Contexts (Women Living Under Muslim Laws, 2010). Along with these publications, Mir-Hosseini directed with Kim Longinotto two documentaries on current issues in Iran: Divorce Iranian Style (1998) and Runaway (2001).

As a famous Muslim female figure she brings much significance to those woman in many countries. She serves as a sign of hope for women who struggle against oppression and desire the opportunity to expand their intellect. As an anthropologists who specializes in Islamic law, gender, and development, she approaches topics of societal justice with professionalism. But aside from being an anthropologist, she is also a passionate feminist. Her actions to help bring equality to women and to clarify the difference between Shari'a (a path, found in the Qur'an and the Prophet's practice) and fiqh (understanding, the jurist's efforts to deduce laws from these sources). She seeks to inspire and serve as a motivation for woman all around the world, towards the realization of gender equity.

References

  1. ↑ Shen, Ted (January 1, 1999). "ZIBA MIR-HOSSEINI". Chicago Tribune. p. 3. Retrieved 1 May 2013. 
  2. ↑ Tavernise, Sabrina (February 15, 2009). "Islamic women seek recognition of their rights". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 May 2013. 
  3. ↑ Naficy, Hamid (2012-11-06). A Social History of Iranian Cinema, Volume 4: The Globalizing Era, 1984–2010. Duke University Press. pp. 151–. ISBN 9780822348788. Retrieved 1 May 2013. 
  4. ↑ Afshar, Haleh (1996-03-07). Women and Politics in the Third World. Routledge. pp. 144–. ISBN 9780203992401. Retrieved 1 May 2013. 
  5. ↑ Women in the Middle East: past and present. Princeton University Press. 2007. pp. 260–. ISBN 9780691128634. 
  6. ↑ Safizadeh, Fereydoun (December 4, 2001). "Book: Islam and gender". The Iranian. Retrieved 1 May 2013. 
  7. ↑ Nadjmabadi, Shahnaz R. (2012-06-25). Conceptualizing Iranian Anthropology: Past and Present Perspectives. Berghahn Books. pp. 189–. ISBN 9780857456526. Retrieved 1 May 2013. 

Further reading

External links

Authority control


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.