Feminism & Islam

By Zaheema Eckbaull

Historical Background
Eighteenth century Europeans society can undoubtly be glimpsed to that of the
Pre-Islamic Arabics society, where women were mere the objects in the hands of
males and can easily be played and exploited. Her status was just like a tissue
paper, which has to throw into basket after usage. After the death of husband,
stepmother has been shared between sons and became their mistress. They were
raped and severely victimized in revenges and wars of different tribes. So women
were the only most suppressed and unwanted being of that time. Thats why
infanticide was so common among them.
Where as Europeans treatment of women is concerned, it was worse than that of
Pre-Islamic Arabs. In Europe, before 19th century, women were considered worst
than an animal. They did not have had any status but rather they were given the
names of cabbages, little creature and slippers. They had to obey males in every
aspect of life, willingly or unwillingly. They did not have any identity and
individuality of their own. They were not allowed to express themselves and they
had to obey traditional norms and values of society. Even in 18th century, women
were not allowed to write anything and female writers used to use sobriquet as in
the case of Jane Austen and some other writers. So till 19th century, emancipation
of women was fallen into abeyance.
Feminism in the light of history

It was from the utopian socialist Charles Fourier who coined the word (feminism)
in 1837; he had argued that the extension of womens rights was the general
principle of all social progress. In that typical patriarchal society, crunch came with
the publication of A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1971) by Mary
Wollstancraft (who can be known as the pioneer of feminist movement). She had
the privilege of being the wife of English Parliamentarian and in the Marquis de
Condorcets company; they shattered the traditional male-oriented society.
Christan de Pisan was the first professional writer who attempted to restrict female
inheritance and guild membership. Championing the cause of women in every
field of life was their logo with which they started their struggle to create
self-recognition in women. In 1785, First Scientific Society for women was
founded in Middelburg, a city in the south of the Dutch Republic, which made a
base that the rights of women are being emancipated in society. Their emphasis
was on the education of women that education can enable the women to fulfill their
human potentials. It became an organized movement in 19th century, when
awareness spread around all over the world, that treatment of men towards women
is unfair. So, it has been highlighted that many social theories, social and political
reform movements and moral philosophies that were concerned with women

worked for the social, political and economical situation of women contributed to
form the movement of feminism.
Feminism largely focuses on eradicating gender inequality that oppress women and
changes their social position and representation. It has been demonstrated that
subordination of one sex to the other is wrong and one of the chief hindrances to
human improvement contributed much in giving way to feministic movement to
follow and forced many areas to change their attitude towards women.
In Britain, feminists started to organize in 1850 and 1860s, as they were concerned
with opening up employment opportunity, improving girls education and
reforming the property laws. In 1857, London University became the first such
institution to admit women to all its examinations and degrees. Elizabeth Garret
Anderson qualified as the first woman medical practitioner in 1865.
In 1882, married women obtained the right to own property. Another important
contribution of feminists is the achievement of the legal right for married women to
control their own earning in 1907. Similarly, feministic movement in New Zealand
won the vote for women in 1893, thus New Zealand became the first country to
grant nations women suffrage.
The industrial Revolution and its need for womens contribution to the work force
brought strength to the feminist movement and helped its advocates gradually
break down most of those discriminatory laws. They also emphasized the issue of
children, sexuality, male violence and the role of men and women in the home.
And above all, they took the concept - that all women can and should become
lesbians in order to invest the majority of their energy in giving love and support to
women. These Lesbian feminists argue that, to continue having sexual relationships
with men is to remain caught in what is seen as an oppressive heterosexual pattern
that leads towards a subservient position.
Now two centuries have been passed - that submissive, oppressed, subservient,
self-sacrificing supercilious and dependent woman turns out to be an independent,
self-liberating and self- motivated human being. She struggled a lot to settle herself
in womens denying mans world. And today she is going to surmount
man-oriented pestilence in West.
Pseudo-Scholar (Feminist Islamic Scholars)
Definition of Islamic Feminism

Islamic feminism can be defined, as a Quranic-centred reform movement by

Muslim women with the linguistic and theological knowledge to challenge
patriarchal interpretations and offer alternative readings in pursuit of women's
advancement and in refutation of Western stereotypes and Islamist orthodoxy alike.
Islamic feminists are critical of women's legal status and social positions and agree
that women are placed in subordinate positions by law and by custom in the
family and in the economy.
Inception of Feminism Movement

Islamic Feminism is the cynosure of the world now a day because whether living in
any part of the world, many Muslim scholars warmly welcomed Feminism and
tend to view it with appreciation. The term Islamic feminism began to be visible in

the 1990s in various global locations. Iranian scholars Afsaneh Najmabadeh and
Ziba Mir-Hosseini explained the rise and use of the term Islamic feminism in Iran
by women writing in the Teheran women's journal Zanan that Shahla Sherkat
founded in1992. Saudi Arabian scholar Mai Yamani used the term in her 1996
book Feminism and Islam. Turkish scholars Yesim Arat and Feride Acar in their
articles, and Nilufer Gole in her book
The Forbidden Modern (published in Turkish in 1991 and in English in 1996) used
the term Islamic feminism in their writings in the 1990s to describe a new feminist
paradigm they detected emerging in Turkey. South African activist Shamima
Shaikh employed the term Islamic feminism in her speeches and articles in the
1990s as did her sister and brother co- activists. Amina Waduds in her womensensitive interpretation of the Qur'an combines classical Islamic methodologies
with new social science tools and secular discourses of rights and justice while
retaining a firm and central grounding in Islamic thought. Already by the
mid-1990s, there was growing evidence of Islamic feminism as a term created and
circulated by Muslims in far- flung corners of the global umma.
In the beginning of the nineteenth century a few Islamic thinkers such as Sayyid
Jamal-ad-Din Asadabadi (al-Afqani), Muhammad Abduh, Rashid Reza, and
especially Qasim Amin and later "the Sister's movement " in the Arabic countries
tried to give a modern, liberal, reformist and feminist reinterpretation of Islam.
Their ideas never became dominating in any Islamic country. But during the 1980s
and 1990s, a similar tendency to reinterpret Islam in a feminist context reappeared
in several Islamic countries. Several secular feminist scholars (e.g., Fatima
Merniss, Aziza Al-Hibri), who earlier criticized Islam, changed their position and
tried to offer a feminist interpretation of Islam, making it quite difficult to place
Muslim feminist into a "neat" category (Mernessi, 1996; Afshari, 1994).
Targets of Muslims Feminists

Muslim feminists point out that a liberal and feminist review of the Quran could
contribute to the development of women's emancipation in the Islamic countries.
But these pseudo-scholars (so-called Islamic Feminist) stigmatized this pestilence
by using the name of Islam. As they say, we use the fundamentals of Islamic
thinking -- the Quran, the Sunnah, or traditions and sayings of the prophet
Muhammad, and ijtihad, or independent reasoning -- to challenge the ways in
which Islam has been distorted by sharia rulings issued mostly by ultraconservative
men.
They took this sullage to make their own path of Islam. They denied to accept the
Fiq and emphasized the re-interpretation of Quran by female scholars. For them,
Quran has been miss-interpretated by males in order to snub and exploit the
women. According to them, there are following reasons to justify the equality of
man and woman and by using them, they can be able to give equal rights to women
which Allah S.W.T has given them 15th centuries ago.
Revising ayaat of the Quran to correct false stories in common circulation,
such as the accounts of creation and of events in the Garden of Eden that
have shored up claims of male superiority.
Citing ayaat that unequivocally enunciate the equality of women and men.
Deconstructing ayaat attentive to male and female differences that have been
commonly interpreted in ways that justify male domination.

As an example of a new interpretation of the Qur'an, woman alone can give birth
and nurse, and thus, in this particular circumstance, a husband is enjoined by the
Qur'an to provide material support as indicated in 4:34, "Men are responsible for
(qawwamun) women because God has given the one more than the other (bima
faddala), and because they support them from their means." Amina Wadud,
Muhsin, Hassan, Al-Hibri, Naseef, demonstrate that qawwamun conveys the notion
of providing for and that the term is used prescriptively to indicate that men ought
to provide for women in the context of child- bearing and rearing.
It also does not necessarily mean that women cannot provide for themselves in that
circumstance. The term qawwamun is not an unconditional statement of male
authority and superiority over all women for all time, as traditional male
interpreters have claimed. The women exegetes thus show how classical male
interpretations have turned the specific and contingent into universals. Concerning
the masculinist argument that men have authority over women, while
deconstructing particular ayaat such as the above, the exegetes also draw attention
to other ayaat affirming mutuality of responsibilities as in sura nine, verse 71 of the
Qur'an which says that "The believers, male and female, are protectors of one
another.

Abdennur Prado, Yaratullah Monturiol and Ndeye Hadi Andujar

International Congress on Islamic Feminism
Barcelona 27th, 28th, 29th October, 2005

A common argument from feminists is that many Islamic laws have been made
harsher by custom over time. This can be seen in the practice of the hijab. The veil
finds its origins as a Persian elitist fashion that was used to distinguish the
aristocracy from the commoners.
The Quran appears to make a clear distinction between Muhammad's wives, and
believing women. It is only the Prophet's wives that should shield themselves from
men. Other women, like men, are to act modestly. Early Islamic society saw no
restrictions or limitations on the role of women in public affairs.
However, as the ulama began the process of interpreting Islam through the exegesis
of the sacred texts, restrictive practices from foreign cultures were assimilated into
the teaching of Islam in order to maintain its appeal to new converts. So in
International Congress on Islamic Feminist, women did not bother to cover their
heads.

In approaching the Qur'an, women bring to their readings their own experience and
questions as women. They point out that classical, and also much of post-classical,
interpretation was based on men's experiences, male-centered questions, and the

overall influence of the patriarchal societies in which they lived.

Another very important issue, they raised that, the issue of women's rights to have
control over their sexuality and fertility in the society, where the traditional
interpretation of the Islamic law gives a man the right to have sexual relations with
his wife and decide when and how many children he may want to have, and the
wife has to obey his wishes. Therefore, the demand for a woman to have control
over her sexuality and fertility challenges the patriarchal rights of men within
Sharia law.

An Unwed Mother
Amina Lawal, left, was initially sentenced to death by a Nigerian court for having a
child outside marriage; but one of the Feministic Judge released her from offence.
Leila Ahmed describes Islamic social systems as having combined the "worst
features of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern misogyny with an Islam interpreted
in the most negative way possible. One such woman, Bangladeshi writer Taslima
Nasrin has proposed that secularism is a necessary step in the promotion of
women's rights. Nasrin argues that morality standards should not be dependent on
either social or religious rules. A societys moral standard should be relative to the
sum of the social, cultural and structural factors. To choose one element, such as
religion, will invariably lead to an unjust society.
Mernissi argues that the assertion that 'All human beings are born free and equal in
dignity and rights' contradicts the hijab (veil) and the reasoning behind it, and the
declaration that 'everyone has a right to freedom of opinion and expression; this
right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference' is in direct contrast
with the Islamic concept of the amma, who are the 'uncultivated mass, ignorant and
undisciplined by nature; being incapable of reflection or reason, it must be
excluded from power.

Nawal El Saddawi finds that the oppression faced by women is 'not essentially due
to religious ideologies . . . but derives its roots from the class and patriarchal
system'. Islamic history paints a picture of pre-Islamic society where women's
sexuality is 'chaotic, all-embracing, rampant promiscuity whose essence is
woman's self-determination'. The worst example of this sexual paranoia can be
found in the act of female circumcision. Though having no basis within the Quran
or any authentic Hadiths, clitoridectomies are still practiced under the name of
Islam, particularly in parts of North and East Africa.

So all these Pseudo-scholars basically impressed by West and they are generally
upper class women whose feminism was modeled after feminists in the West. They
are just the exponents of West and they dont have any real purpose for oppressed
women.
Status of Women in Islam

Pre-Islamic Arab had blind belief in the superstitions who were disunited and
perpetual wars were prevailing in that society. The society, which was
characterized by cruelty, barbarism, devastation, brutality and topsy-turvy, where
female infanticide was common, daughters, were buried alive and woman was
considered as a property and treated as a slave. In that situation, Islam adorned the
world with laws and injunctions.
Islam has given a new life and raised the woman to such a high pedestal of honour
where today no religion (except Islam) of the world can even claim. Following
Ayahs are the very first revelation of Holy Quran in which infanticide of female
was strictly forbidden, as it is said, And when the female (infant) buried alive is
questioned. For what sin, was she killed? (Surah At-Takwir: 7,8)
Islam has stabilized equal rights for women and gave them share in properties of
their fathers and husbands. There are many ayaat (verses) of the Qur'an that seem
to declare male/female equality. One is Al- Hujurat: " Oh humankind. We have
created you from a single pair of a male and a female and made you into tribes and
nations that you may know each other [not that you may despise one another]. The
most honored of you in the sight of God is the most righteous of you [the one
practicing the most taqwa]."

Essentially and ontologically, all human beings are equal; they are only
distinguished among themselves on the basis of their rightful practice or
implementation of the fundamental Qur'anic principle of justice. As in Quran, it is
ordered, Allah Commands you as regards your childrens; to the male a portion
equal to that of two females; if only daughters, two or more, their share is two-third
of the inheritance; if only one, her share is half. For parents, a sixth share of
inheritance to each if the deceased left children; if no children, and the parents are
the (only) heirs, the mother has a third. In that which your wives leave, your
share is a half if they have no child; but if they leave a child, you get a fourth of
that which they leave after payment of legacies that they may have bequeathed or
debt (4: 11, 12). At another place, it is said, There is a share for men and a
share for women from what is left by parents and those nearest related, whether the
property be small or large a legal share (4:7).
These Ayahs are revealed only to maintain, that, the men of the family are
responsible for providing economically for the women or that women are not
equally responsible, is not a dislocation or denial of sexual equity. It is instead a
duty to be fulfilled by men as compensation for another responsibility, which
involves the special ability of women.
Likewise the different inheritance rates for males and females, which are so often
sited as an example of discrimination against women, must not be seen as an
isolated prescription. It is also one part of a comprehensive system in which
women carry no legal responsibility to support other members of the family, but in
which men are bound by law as well as custom to provide for all their female
relatives.

Another very important issue, criticized by these Islamic scholars is the concept of
polygamy. Islamic tradition does indeed allow a man to marry more than one
woman
at a time. This leniency is even established by the Quran, And if you fear that you
shall not be able to deal justly with the orphan-girls then marry women of your
choice, two or three, or four; but if you fear that you shall not be able to deal justly,
the only one. Polygyny is certainly not imposed by Islam; nor is it a universal
practice. It is instead regarded as the exception to the norm of monogamy, and its
exercise is strongly controlled by social pressures. If utilized by Muslim men to
facilitate or condone sexual promiscuity, it is not less Islamically condemnable
than serial polygyny and adultery, and no less detrimental to the society. Muslims
view polygyny as an institution, which is to be called into use only under
extraordinary circumstances. As such, it has not been generally regarded by
Muslim women as a threat. Attempts by the feminist movement to focus on
eradication of this institution in order to improve the status of women would
therefore meet with little sympathy or support.
Islam has also given respect and reverence to women even after her divorce, as said
in Holy Quran, And give to women their Mahr with a good heart. (4: 4).

So in such a religion, where first time in the history, woman is given such an
honour and respect and as Holy Prophet Mohammad S.A.W has again and again
stressed on the respect of women, as he said, Treat women nicely, for a woman is
created from a rib, and the most curved portion of the rib is its upper portion, so if
you would try to straighten it, it will break, but if you leave it as it is, it will remain
crooked. So treat women nicely.

If Muslim women experience discrimination in any place or time, they do not and
should not lay the blame on Islam as in the case of Nawal El Saddawi (as she was
victimized by the barbaric action of circumcision), but on the un-Islamic nature of
their societies and the failure of Muslims to fulfill its directives. Indubitably,
Western had had the need of feminism because they dont have any book and
fundamentals on which they could make their way. But strangely enough, first of
all, these scholars coined the word feminism from West and had adopted this
insatiable wish to do totally opposite to that of Quran and the teachings of Hazrat
Mohammad S.A.W. I just want to quote one of the living verse from Holy Quran,
which is only the slap on the faces of these pseudo-scholars, who claim to be an
Islamic Feminist scholars and talk about the patriarchal society and give full
guarantee to women to make them liberate from the shackles of man-oriented
society.
For men who submit [to God] and for women who submit [to God], for believing
men and believing women, for devout men and devout women, for truthful men and
truthful women, for steadfast men and steadfast women, for humble men and
humble women, for charitable men and charitable women, for men who fast and
women who fast, for men who guard their chastity and women who guard, for men
who remember God much and for women who remember - for them God has
prepared forgiveness and a mighty reward" (33:35).

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