Women, Faith, and Family: Reclaiming Gender Justice through Religious Activism

March 24, 2025

Meet VCU Authors: Samaneh Oladi Ghadikolaei

Start time: 12:00 p.m.

End time: 1:00 p.m

Location: Virtual

Check back soon for more info!

Join us for a Meet VCU Authors talk with Samaneh Oladi Ghadikolaei, Ph.D, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at VCU, and author of Women, Faith, and Family: Reclaiming Gender Justice through Religious Activism.

Description

Women, Faith, and Family takes an insider look at the practices adopted by the Women’s Islamic Coalition, an assembly of Iranian women who embrace their faith as a principal component of their pursuit of gender justice. By using the Coalition’s activism as a lens through which to view women’s legal status, Samaneh Oladi examines complex questions about the extent of female agency, showing how Muslim women’s access to religious resources and use of hermeneutics strengthens their position in gender negotiations. Female religious activists not only struggle against gender hierarchy and conventional paradigms but also cultivate a unique women’s jurisprudence that challenges both Western liberalism and religious orthodoxy. Oladi provides a nuanced portrait of Iranian women’s activism and their attempts to reform their legal status, challenging deep-rooted assumptions in secular feminism that there is an intrinsic discord between women’s agency and their religion.

About the Author

Samaneh Oladi Ghadikolaei, Ph.D is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her research focuses on women’s faith-based activism, Islamic jurisprudence, and Islamic mysticism.