The Autonomy of Muslim Women: Meanings and Difficulties

Since the Enlightenment, the concept of autonomy has been recognized as one of the most significant moral and political values in the West; hence feminists have analyzed it in detail. In the beginning, they considered autonomy as an equivalent to the right to choose as well as the right to manage life; therefore, they wanted women to enjoin it. Later on, with the rise of criticism about liberalism, autonomy was also regarded as a masculine and individualistic value that was not appropriate to feminism. Then, there was an attempt to review the concept of autonomy in such a way as to embody not only the fundamental reality of communicative feature of mankind, but also to liberate women from the oppressive devices of communication. Consequently, today's autonomy literature encompasses a variety of approaches such as process, content, causality, chronology, etc., which will be briefly reviewed in this article. Many of these theories deal with the role of religion in women's lives and judge Muslim women's autonomy. In the light of the foresaid issues and because of the importance of autonomy in political thought, the relation between autonomy and Muslim women as well as issues arising from this concept will be analyzed and evaluated. In some cases, these reflections include the reports of encounter and of exposure whereas in other cases they involve the inference of possible positions.