Lebanon: Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah Challenging Traditional Views

Lebanon cleric advises ‘modern Shiites’

Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah’s liberal fatwas, or edicts, have shocked conservative Muslims around the world.

Borzou Daragahi (Los Angeles Times)

“… Fadlallah is more of a reference for modern Shiites [than Sistani is]…” [said Fadlallah's aide, Hani Abdullah.]

On gender issues in particular, he takes positions that raise eyebrows among his conservative counterparts, such as questioning the conventional Islamic prohibition on female judges and challenging the traditional view that a woman’s place is in the house and the man’s in the workplace.

“The belief that it is disgraceful for the man to manage household tasks is derived from the social culture and not from Islam,” he says in a statement on his website. “Personally, I think that no woman would be obliged to bring her social life to a standstill just because she is being occupied with her children.”

Also from his website: “Knowledge is a merit for man and woman equally, and the importance of acquiring it is identical to both of them.”

A statement from Fadlallah’s office said he opposed a man “using any sort of violence against a woman, even in the form of insults and harsh words….”