“Gender Equality” or “Gender Parity/ Complementarity”? An Evaluation of selected Recent Indian Muslim Scholarly Works on Islam and Women Issues

Abstract From intellectual point of view, the last two decades of twenty-first century have witnessed (though not abruptly), various debates and discourses about Islam’s stance on such-and-such issue/ topic. One of these crucial, controversial and hotly debated topics is “Islam and women”. Many works have been written to discuss and deliberate on the vital issue of “Gender Equ(al)ity” by scholars (globally), including Muslim scholars of India. In this context, this essay presents an assessment of three (3) recent works, authored by Maulana Wahiduddin Khan (d. 2021) and Abdur Raheem Kidwai (b. 1956). All these works, collectively, make significant contribution to the literature depicting a “holistic picture” of the position and role of women in Islam and contribute much to this debate by bringing to light the real perspective of “Gender Equ(al)ity” in Islam.