Suchergebnisse

It is generally agreed that the rise of the Safavids in the sixteenth century marks a new period in the history of Persia. Hegemony of one dynasty over nearly all the Persian-speaking world, accompanied by the swift forced conversion of the overwhelming majority of the Persians into Twelver Shi'ism, resulted in the emergence of the first Persian state in the modern era. Such a signal event could not but invest the Persian state and society with major, fundamental institutions. The same institutions have continued to characterize and to influence Persia down to the Constitutionalist Revolution of 1905-1911. It is these institutions that constitute the "traditional" features of the society against which the forces of "modernization" have been operating since the adoption of the Constitution and the Supplementary Fundamental Law of 1907.

It is too soon to measure the influence of G. E. von Grunebaum on developing trends in Islamic scholarship. But it is not too soon to assess the legacy of his writings. The assessment is bound to suffer from subjectivity and perhaps even border on the presumptuous. And I must confess at the outset that in this paper I have not ruled out a degree of inferential and impressionistic judgment, which in the end may only reflect my own limited vantage.

Through signing CEDAW, the international community acknowledged woman's dignity and recognized her rights. In the name of Islam, however, many Arab countries refrained from signing CEDAW, and even those countries which signed it attached to it a number of reservations. In the name of Islam, the principle of equality between men and women in regard to civil, economic and social rights is considered a western and foreign import. This supposed incompatibility lead Dr. Banani to present a comparison between the present legal status of the Arab woman and the status to which CEDAW ideally aims.