Haleh Afshar, Lady Afshar, who has died aged 77 of kidney failure, was an Iranian-born scholar whose life’s work was one of the most contentious subjects of our time: Islamic feminism. She spent most of her academic career at the University of York, where she was professor of politics and women’s studies from 1999, and her advisory roles with the government on engaging with women led to a life peerage in 2007.
She wrote or edited many books, including Iran: a Revolution in Turmoil; Islam and Feminisms; and Women in the Middle East: Perceptions, Realities and Struggles for Liberation. Her scholarship was rigorously academic but her ideas had real-world consequences: she used the Qu’ran to promote women’s rights to own property, to contribute to public debate, to be paid for housework. She saw no contradiction in describing herself as both a feminist and a Shia Muslim.
