The Study of Verse 18 of Surat az-Zukhruf in Relation to Women Taking Public Offices

The present article tries to study the verse (ayat) 18 of Surat az-Zukhruf to find out whether the verse refer to the incapability of women to run a public position or not. In order to do that, we carried out an investigation into the ideas of Muslim thinkers about this matter. One common issue among all these interpretations is that the deficiency in intelligence among women is an inborn characteristics as the "love of ornaments" and the "inability to think clearly" are two features that women are naturally born with, thus the decree for the ban of women in taking public offices. However, examining different interpretations makes it clear that Allame Fazlollah by putting forward a thorough discussion, has rejected the deficiency in intelligence of women. Finally, presenting some documents from the Holy Quran, it becomes evident that three verses in the holy book do not show any signs of the inability of women in talking government or judgmental positions.