Gender, authority, and qur’anic legal interpretation: reframing contemporary debates on women’s interpretive agency

Rahmayati Koto; M. Farhan Hidayat; Maisarah Siregar

Authors

Rahmayati Koto International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM)
M. Farhan Hidayat Universitas Islam Negeri Sultan Syarif Kasim Riau
Maisarah Siregar Institut Ilmu Al-Qur'an (IIQ) Jakarta

Keywords:

qur’anic legal interpretation, gender, interpretive authority, women’s interpretive agency, islamic feminist hermeneutics

Abstract

Contemporary debates on gender and Qur’anic legal interpretation are often framed as disputes over women’s legal status, yet this framing overlooks a deeper epistemological problem: how interpretive authority is constructed and whose experience is recognized in producing Qur’anic legal meaning. This article aims to reframe contemporary gender debates by examining women’s interpretive agency within Qur’anic legal hermeneutics. Employing a qualitative textual research design and critical hermeneutical analysis, the study examines selected Qur’anic legal and ethical verses, classical tafsīr works, and contemporary Muslim gender-sensitive scholarship. The analysis draws on theories of interpretive authority, contextualist Qur’anic hermeneutics, Islamic feminist hermeneutics, and critiques of male authority in Muslim legal tradition. The findings show that classical Qur’anic legal exegesis constructed gendered authority through linguistic reasoning, juristic method, hadith-based interpretation, and social assumptions about male responsibility, while often marginalizing women lived moral reasoning as an interpretive resource. Contemporary gender-sensitive scholars reframe women from objects of legal regulation into interpretive agents who critically engage inherited meanings of qiwāmah, testimony, inheritance, and family authority. The study proposes a reflexive model of Qur’anic legal hermeneutics based on textual seriousness, historical consciousness, epistemic inclusivity, maqāṣid-based ethical reasoning, and legal-theoretical accountability. Its central contribution lies in shifting the debate from women’s legal status to women’s epistemic participation, showing that gender justice in Qur’anic legal interpretation requires not only more equitable rulings but also a reconstruction of interpretive authority.

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