An Islamic Reformation

last updated 8 January 2015

Istanbul

Turkish religious authorities are purging the hadiths of statements that treat women as inferior to men. The hadiths, traditional sayings that inform much of Islamic sharia law, are filled with misogynistic dictates. “The best of women are those who are like sheep,” reads one. Notes another: “If a husband’s body is covered with pus and his wife licks it clean, she still won’t have paid her dues.” Ali Bardakoglu, the president of the Diyanet, Turkey’s Islamic authority, said a revised collection of hadiths would be distributed in 2008. Bardakoglu also plans to send moderate imams to Turkey’s rural regions to preach against backward practices such as honor killings.