Bahrain Feminists Debate 'True Meaning' of Qur'anic Verses

The placard reads: “Our future is in your hands”; Women activists in Bahrain demonstration for the creation of a codified family and personal laws in Bahrain . via Flickr’s malyousifFeminists in Bahrain are seeking new Islamic perspectives on gender and women’s empowerment, and asking for modern interpretations of the Qu’an.

The purpose of the series of four workshops launched in May by the Bahrain Women Association for Development is to assert that men have misinterpreted certain passages of the Quran to belittle women and show them as inferior to men.

“We aren’t against Islam and don’t want to promote our perspective,” explains Asma Rajab, an activist and member of its board of directors. “We want to make our society consider women as complete humans.”

The series, which is the first initiative of its kind in the Gulf, was launched by the association and the society, under the title ‘Women: A New Paradigm’. via Gulf Daily News