Women’s Leadership in Contemporary Islamic Law: A Maqashid al-Shariʿah and Religious Moderation Approach

Abstract

Debates on women’s leadership in contemporary Islamic law involve competing interpretations of religious texts, historical contexts, and the normative principles governing public authority. Rather than reducing the issue to a binary opposition between permissibility and prohibition, this article examines how maqāṣid al-sharī‘ah and religious moderation can provide an analytical framework for evaluating women’s leadership in contemporary Muslim societies, particularly Indonesia. This study employs normative legal research based on library materials, using textual, contextual, conceptual, and statutory approaches. Its primary materials include relevant Qur’anic verses, prophetic traditions concerning leadership, classical and contemporary Islamic legal scholarship, and Indonesian legislation governing political participation. The analysis focuses on the interpretive scope of the relevant texts, the relationship between classical jurisprudential doctrines and modern political institutions, and the implications of Islamic legal objectives for leadership eligibility. This article argues that the legal assessment of women’s leadership requires a distinction between specific historical forms of political authority and contemporary public offices operating within constitutional and institutional systems. It proposes a maqāṣid-oriented evaluative framework comprising four interconnected criteria: competence, procedural justice, public welfare, and accountability. Religious moderation complements this framework by promoting fair engagement with jurisprudential disagreement without erasing substantive differences or legitimizing discrimination. The proposed framework does not claim to eliminate classical juristic disagreement; rather, it offers a systematic method for assessing leadership in light of scriptural interpretation, institutional context, and the objectives of Islamic law. The article contributes a normative-conceptual model for discussing women’s leadership that connects Islamic legal reasoning with contemporary public governance.