ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter outlines how these different structures interact and present themselves in the context of biomedical research and lays the foundations for the more substantive discussions on specific ethical issues arising from the enrolment of women into studies and HIV research. It presents a comparison of the views expressed in Iran and Malaysia and attempts to explain where differences occur and why. In Iran the role of Islam’s normative sources and Islamic scholars is more centrally established, whereas in Malaysia this occurs within a parallel legal system of Shariah courts and fatawah. One senior researcher in Iran explained that in his experience the involvement of Islamic scholars in the authorship of national research ethics guidelines was integral to the development of religio-culturally appropriate guidelines. For the authorship of the national guidelines in biomedical research ethics, there was involvement from four Islamic scholars.
