Asghar Ali Engineer

Asghar Ali Engineer (1939–2013) is a leading reformist in the contemporary Muslim world. Born in a Daudi Bohra priestly family in Rajasthan, he has been a strong advocate of change and reform in Muslim laws, especially on matters pertaining to gender justice. Asghar Ali Engineer received extensive religious training in his early years before pursuing an education in the field of civil engineering. He served in the Bombay Municipal Corporation for 20 years, before plunging into the Bohra reform movement in the 1970s. As a proponent of peace, pluralism and social justice, he founded two institutes, Institute of Islamic Studies (IIS) and Center for Study of Society and Secularism (CSSS). He also chairs the Asian Muslim Action Network (AMAN), an organization that links various progressive Muslim groups with a common agenda of pursuing social justice and advocating peace. For his pioneering studies on communalism and communal violence in India, Asghar Ali Engineer was awarded D.Lit. by Calcutta University in 1993.

Asghar Ali Engineer is a leading voice for gender equality in Islam. His writings on gender include The Rights of Women in Islam (1992) and Qur’an, Women and Modern Society (1999). He is also a proponent of an Islamic liberative theology, of which he has published Islam and Liberation Theology (1990). His other writings include The Origin and Development of Islam (1980); The Islamic State (1980); Rethinking Issues in Islam (1998); and On Developing Theology of Peace in Islam (2003).