Sharia, State, and Gender Inequality: A Comparative Analysis of Women's Socioeconomic Status Across Six Muslim-Majority Countries

Publication Date

Spring 4-22-2026

Presentation Length

15 minutes

College

College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences

Department

Political Science, Department of

Student Level

Undergraduate

Faculty Mentor

Dr. Nathan Griffith

Presentation Type

Article

Summary

This study examines why and how countries that implement Sharia Law produce varying outcomes for women by arguing that political instrumentalization, rather than the doctrinal context, is the primary driver of socioeconomic disparities between genders. By utilizing comparative law, political science, and sociological scholarship, we see that the existing scholarship is synthesized across three analytical strands of how Sharia is a state-mediated legal system, feminist and reformist reinterpretations of Islamic law, and socio-legal approaches in emphasizing lived experiences. The central thesis states that strategically deploying Sharia to consolidate regime authority or religious legitimacy will exhibit worse socioeconomic outcomes for women in states that operate through bureaucratic, moderated, or pluralistic legal systems. To test this, a Most Different Systems Design method is used across six cases: Iran, Afghanistan, Egypt, Malaysia, Nigeria, and Tunisia. This maximizes variation across three independent variables of doctrinal rigidity, political instrumentalization, and legal pluralism. A woman's socioeconomic status is classified through workforce participation, educational enrollment, property rights, and gender wage gap indicators. This research aims to address three underexplored gaps in the literature: the absence of structured multi-country comparison, insufficient attention to the political function of Sharia Law independent of its legal content, and the lack of a unified comparative framework that integrates a doctrinal, political, and hybrid-systemic explanation.

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