Many of the NGOs working in rural areas made
a deliberate effort to educate villagers about the
dangers of these unlawful fatwas. The Dhaka-
based legal aid organization Ain o Salish Kendra
(ASK, Law and mediation center) took the lead in
documenting cases of such fatwas and of filing
charges against the perpetrators whenever possible;
the center estimated that there were about 180
reported incidents of fatwa-related violence be-
tween 1993 and 2001. Recognizing that the salish
provides poor villagers an invaluable, inexpensive,
and locally-rooted alternative forum for dispute
resolution to expensive formal courts, ASK, Banchte
Shekha (Learning to survive), and other NGOs
undertook projects to develop this institution while
minimizing its worst aspects. Thus they educated
poor village women as well as local elected officials
on the intricacies of state law so that they could
challenge inappropriate decrees made by religious
leaders in a salish. Activists achieved a major vic-
tory in 2001 when the Bangladesh high court ruled
that all fatwas issued by individuals without legal
authority are illegal and non-binding and called on
parliament to enact laws to stop this dangerous
practice. While human rights activists celebrated,
Islamist leaders responded by declaring the two
judges responsible for this ruling murtads (infidels)
and called on all true believers to take action
against them.iran
In Iran, where Shì≠ìIslam bestows upon clerics a
degree of authority and official power not found in
SunnìIslam, the personality of an individual reli-
gious leader can make all the difference. Grand
Ayatollah Yusef Saanei, for instance, is among the
twelve most revered clerics in Shi≠ism. He believes
that the Qur±àn calls for the equality of all people,
men and women, Muslim and non-Muslim. He has
issued fatwas banning discrimination on the basis
of race, gender, or ethnicity; he has declared that
women can hold any job, including his; and he has
stated that abortion is permitted in the first tri-
mester for reasons other than the mother’s health or
fetal abnormalities. He has even written letters of
consent for women who are seeking abortions to
take to their doctors. He rationalizes such fatwas
on the grounds that Islamic laws should be inter-174 fatwa
preted in accordance with changes in science and
social realities. A second cleric, Ayatollah Mustafa
Mohaqeqdamad, has argued that men should not
be permitted to divorce their wives simply by utter-
ing “I divorce you” three times. His rationale is that
an Islamic marriage requires the consent of both
parties and therefore, surely, divorce should require
the same.
As this entry shows, although the practice of giv-
ing fatwas has been part of the Islamic tradition
from its earliest days, it has come to be understood
very differently in different contexts at the turn of
the twenty-first century. In countries with official
fatwa-issuing institutions, fatwas are seen generally
as authoritative statements on issues of concern to
contemporary state and society; in some instances,
as in Egypt, state muftis have lost some credibility
because they are regarded as being in too close an
alliance with the state. In Iran, on the other hand,
independent and powerful ayatollahs have been
able to issue controversial fatwas challenging tradi-
tional ideas of gender roles. In Bangladesh, finally,
which does not have an official fatwa-board, the
term has been appropriated by village religious
leaders to target and punish women they feel are
behaving inappropriately.Bibliography
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