Zohreh Sefati is a female
Mujtahida. Sefati is a member of the Women's Socio-Cultural Council and a representative to the Supreme Council of Cultural Reforms.
Personal and Education Life
Sefati was raised in a religious family. She was born in
Abadan
Abadan ( fa, آبادان ''Ābādān'', ) is a city and capital of Abadan County, Khuzestan Province, which is located in the southwest of Iran. It lies on Abadan Island ( long, 3–19 km or 2–12 miles wide). The island is bounde ...
,
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
in 1948. She studied her high school level subjects at home before attending theology school in 1966. Sefati took preliminary lessons in jurisprudence, literature and Islamic sciences in Abadan. In 1970, she left to attend
Qom
Qom (also spelled as "Ghom", "Ghum", or "Qum") ( fa, قم ) is the seventh largest metropolis and also the seventh largest city in Iran. Qom is the capital of Qom Province. It is located to the south of Tehran. At the 2016 census, its pop ...
Theology School to continue her studies. She was a student of renowned scholars such as Ayatollah Shahidi, Ayatollah Haqqi, Ayatollah
Ali Meshkini
Ali Akbar Feiz Aleni ( fa, علیاکبر فیض آلنی; 2 December 1921 – 30 July 2007), better known as Ali Meshkini, was an Iranian cleric and politician.
Life
Meshkini was an Iranian Azerbaijani born in a village near Meshkin Shahr ...
and Ayatollah
Mohammad Hassan Ahmadi Faqih
Ayatollah Mirza Mohammad Hassan Ahmadi Faghih (Persian: ميرزا محمد حسن احمدى فقيه) (born 1951 - died August 28, 2010 ) was an Iranian Twelver Shi'a Marja.
He studied in seminaries of Qum, Iran under Grand Ayatollah Mohamma ...
(who was her husband).
Sefati achieved the highest jurisprudence degree (Ijtihad), an accomplishment made only by a small number of women. Her Ijtihad degree was approved by several ayatollahs, including Ayatollahs Ali Yari Gharavi-Tabrizi (a student of Ayatollah Naeini),
Safi Gulpaygani,
Fazel Lankarani, and
Mohammad Hassan Ahmadi Faqih
Ayatollah Mirza Mohammad Hassan Ahmadi Faghih (Persian: ميرزا محمد حسن احمدى فقيه) (born 1951 - died August 28, 2010 ) was an Iranian Twelver Shi'a Marja.
He studied in seminaries of Qum, Iran under Grand Ayatollah Mohamma ...
.
Work
Sefati has also co-founded a theology school for women in Qom, which later became known as
Maktab-e Tawhid Maktab-e Tawhid (also Maktab-e Tawhīd) was a Shi'i seminary for women, established in Qom, Iran's clerical center in 1975, as a wing of the Haghani school.
The founding of the seminary followed similar institutions in Qom, Fasa, Shiraz and Isfah ...
.
[""El islam no hace diferencias entre mujeres y hombres"" EL PAIS, 12.6.2006. http://internacional.elpais.com/internacional/2006/06/12/actualidad/1150063201_850215.html] Sefati was one of the 3,000 exemplary women commended by Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ( fa, محمود احمدینژاد, Mahmūd Ahmadīnežād ), born Mahmoud Sabbaghian ( fa, محمود صباغیان, Mahmoud Sabbāghyān, 28 October 1956), and received (and accepted) a plaque of honor from the president in October 2006.
Sefati has two brothers. One is Gholāmḥusayn Ṣefātī-Dezfūlī (1952–1977) who was a member of the radical anti-capitalist group “Manṣūrān.” Her other brother, Īraj Ṣefātī-Dezfūlī (b. 1940), represented the city of Abadan in the first and fifth Majlis (Iranian parliament) and was a member of the Majlis’ Supreme Audit Court.
Sefati and some male jurists, such as
Yousef Saanei
Grand Ayatollah Yousef Saanei ( fa, يوسف صانعى; 16 October 1937 – 12 September 2020) was an Iranian Twelver Shi'a Marja' and politician, a member of the Islamic Republic of Iran's powerful Guardian Council from 1980 to 1983 and ...
, believe a female mujtahid can become a source of emulation (a
marja), i.e. that both men and women can perform taqlid (emulation) of a woman mujtahid. Most Shiite mujtahids, however, believe that women cannot become marjas.
See also
*
Lady Amin
Hajiyeh Seyyedeh Nosrat Begum Amin, also known as Banu Amin, Lady Amin ( fa, بانو امين; 1886–1983), was Iran's most outstanding female jurisprudent, theologian and great Muslim mystic ( ‘arif) of the 20th century, a ''Lady Mujtahide ...
*
Amina Bint al-Majlisi
Amina Begum Bint al-Majlisi was a female Safavid mujtahideh. She was the daughter of the great Safavid religious scholar Mulla Muhammad Taqi Majlisi and granddaughter of the mujtahideh Zubaiyda, who was in turn the daughter of the great phi ...
*
Iftikhār al-Tujjar Iffat al-Zaman Amin (1912 - 1977), also known as Iftikhar al-Tujjar, was a student and niece of Banu Amin, Iran's most prominent female religious scholar of the 20th century.
Iffat al-Zamān Amīn received an ijazah of riwāya in Najaf from Ayato ...
*
Zīnah al-Sādāt Humāyūnī Zīnah al-Sādāt Humāyūnī ( fa, زینتالسادات علویه همایونی), also Alavīyah Humāyūnī, Zinatossadat Alevi Homayooni or Homayuni, (1917 - 2 July 2016) was a female religious scholar from Isfahan, Iran, who is the most ...
References
External links
Islamic Insight
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sefati, Zohreh
Iranian ayatollahs
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
Women scholars of Islam
Female Shia scholars of Islam
Iranian Shia scholars of Islam