FEMINIST ISLAM : A FORCE FOR LIBERATION ?
Feminist Islam ? This may sound like a contradiction in terms to many. Because the interpretation of Islam has largely been in male hands for over a thousand years , the Muslim woman today lacks awareness of 'alternative feminism' . Not the man-hating , depot (cloth for covering the head) burning variety- but a feminism that is a rediscovery, a redefinition of womanhood that finds liberation not in 'wanna-be-manhood' , but in what was originally gifted by the Creator of woman and man.
A Creator so Just , so Compassionate, He can not possibly be a misogynist? The anti-woman picture of Islam all too familiar not only to Muslims themselves, but to the world at large? And how , then, we are to prove that an alternative feminism is needed to be found within Islam, and not in throwing it out.
What is of fundamental importance while beginning to study any one aspect of the "all-embracing" system called Islam is keeping in view that it is just not any other man-made "ism" . It is rather the Law Of Supreme and Wisest Who Simply Can Not Error. Who Simply Can Not Be Unjust. Hence only once the premise of a higher intelligence is accepted, can we begin to make sense of the unique society Islam envisions.
To begin with the family structure is based, in the language of industrial management, on "rational deployment of human power resources". The wife and husband occupy equally important , but different roles . In a word , they are equal partners, not competitors. For in Muslim society , national development is inconceivable sans human development. And guess who's in charge of that?
Having settled of where the each individual's primary responsibility lies, there are two critical Verses that need to be reassessed, for they are the cornerstone of the ordering of male-female relations in Muslim society.
Verse 34 of Surah 4 reads in part :
" Men shall take care full care of women with
The bounties God has bestowed
More abundantly on former than on
The latter, and with what they may spend
Out of their possession..."
Somehow this verse, in more languages than one , has been translated(repeat translated) to imply a certain kind of male privilege instead of male responsibility it seems to point towards.
Next is the last portion of Verse 228 of Surah 2, which reads :
" And the divorced women shall undergo,
Without re-marrying , a waiting period of
Three monthly courses ; for it is not lawful
Created in their wombs, if they believe in
God and Last Day.
And during this period their husbands are fully entitled to
Take them back , if they desire
Reconciliation ; in accordance with
Justice, the rights of the wives (with regard to their husbands)
Are equal to the (husbands) rights with regard to them, although men have precedence over them (in this respect).
And God is Almighty , Wise."
The segment above is clearly the one dealing with the divorce laws of Islam. how it is constructed to be general postulate of some kind of male 'superiority' in Islam remains to be answered, let alone proven.
Before enumerating the various rights granted to Muslim women, two factors need to be kept in mind. One , sad as it is, is not to confuse Islam with what the Muslims practice today . Two, that it is not sufficient for anyone to merely compare the rights Islam gives to women to the situation prior to Islam in the 7th century, horrid as it was.
To make a legitimate case of substance, the task is to prove that these rights hold equally good now at the threshold of the 21st century. And as a corollary to show, interestingly enough, that we have had these rights which western women have attained, in part, only recently, all along, for a millennium
The most basic right then, of Muslim women is to be accepted as possessing rights for which she should never need to fight.
The right to life :
True , burying female infants alive may largely be out of fashion, but civilisation has assisted us in putting them to death in the womb now. According to U.N. statistics , out of 8000 abortions performed every year in the city of Bombay , 7999 are female fetuses. So much for the right to life in the world's largest democracy , and that too at the close of the 20 th century. The Muslim girl-child shall not only live , but shall be treated equally with her brother(s).
Economic rights :
The Muslim woman exercises sole, independent ownership of all her wealth in the form of her income, property and all other assets. In addition, she is absolutely free to buy, sell, exchange, mortgage or lease the whole part of her property independent of consultation with her husband and certainly without consent from him.
At no stage she is legally bound to spend a penny of wealth to anyone but herself ; whereas the Muslim man, by virtue of "4:34" , "must" spend of his wealth on his family/dependents.
This , then explains why Muslim women, in some but not all cases inherit half of what man does. Because what she inherits , is hers to keep ; what he does, others already have claim to.
In Islam, a woman has right to economic support all her life- be it from her father, husband, brother , son, relatives or from the "State" itself. However this is not to preclude the fact that she is entitled to seek and benefit from employment, as long as her primary responsibility does not suffer. A rule that applies to men as well, in regard to their respective duties.
Education and political participation :
" To demand knowledge is the
obligation of every Muslim" , is how the famous "Hadith" reads. Education is pointless without enlightenment, for it is the growth of enlightened and aware men and women that Islam aims at. Women who excel at whatever they do, have a voice in the organisation of their communities. New Zealand , in 1994 , celebrated its status as the first country to give the women the right to vote 100 yrs ago. They were slightly taken aback to learn that Islam had given us suffrage not just one , but 14 centuries ago!
Marriage and divorce :
Marriage in Islam is illegal without the independent consent of both the woman and the man. A woman may choose her partner in marriage and is entitled to a dower from her husband on demand. " O believers, it is not Halal for you, to become inheritors of women(and their lives and property) against their will" , is what the verse 19 of "Surah Al-Nisa" reads, very very clearly pointing it to the fact that women must be approached for their consent over a marriage. My personal favourite, perhaps because of its highly symbolic significance , is how a Muslim woman is not allowed to keep her maiden name on marriage...she is a husband's wife, not his property.
A woman can not only obtain "khula" (freedom) from marriage, but she can she can also demand a divorce, since this right can be delegated to her in the Muslim marriage contract. While on the subject, it is interesting and of paramount importance to refer to opinion leading scholars of Islamic Law are putting forward regarding what has now become the infamous "three-second divorce" They are calling for a revision made by an early Caliph, and recommended reverting to the original method for the enactment of divorce as spelt out clearly in the Holy Quran... the "three month divorce" . These doctors of law maintain that regardless of how many times a divorce is pronounced in one sitting, it remains counted as just one divorce and not three. Plus it is to be kept in mind that divorce is no game . So men just do not have any right to verbally give divorce to their women, as just like the "Nikah" , divorce too is , and must be, a written contract, wherein the husband still remains bound to take care of his wife financially, after she is divorced, and if she happens to have some child(ren) , the husband is bound to make it his duty to take care of the situation.
The right to Hijab :
The radical statement for last: the hijab as the liberation of the Muslim woman. Far from being a source of oppression, it serves to emancipate her from being a sex object. From being on sale, from being forced to be on display for the highest bidder.
Contrary to being an 'imposition' by men, (one does sincerely wonder at times where people come up with such theories...) the hijab in its logical actuality, is almost a flippant snub to men...so much for what they would really want!
Enough alien and unnatural standards of 'feminism' have been applied as yardsticks of emancipation to the Muslim woman. And enough distortion and enough apologies have been made to pander to what 'they' have come up with an answer.
But the answer on our part as Muslims, both women and men, is not in blaming the Hindus, the West, or the rain. It is in facing up to our neglect of heritage we've long had, but chosen to either actively or passively neglect.
Studied and implemented sincerely and impartially, Islam is feminist. And God is certainly, certainly not a misogynist.
Afia Mufti
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