The Position of Women Judgeship in Shiite Jurisprudence and Iranian Legal System

During various jurisprudentialeras,certain common qualities have been specified for the ones being appointed as judges; however,different theories have beenproposed concerning the particular prerequisite of masculinity. Some jurists have considered masculinity to be one of the required prerequisites for judges. This article focuses on ideas of Islamicjurists, from Minor Occultation age to contemporary era, and the issue of women judgeship before and after the Islamic Revolution. The results of this study illustrate that the masculinity condition was not among judgeship prerequisites prior to the time of Sheikh Tusi (one of jurists of early Imamiyeh jurisprudence) and it was Sheikh Tusi himself who started these controversial debates. In other words, there was no condition of masculinity during the first era of jurisprudence, yet it was during the second and third eras when the number of masculinity proponents increased, in a way that even in the fourth era we can observe quitedifferent views in this regard in comparison to other eras. From legal point of view, there was no masculine condition for judgeship prior to the Islamic Revolution, but it was in 1361 when this condition was appended to the qualifications of judges; nevertheless, while ijtehad (superior canonical scholarship) condition was neglected.