St Francis Magazine Nr. 2 Vol.
III (September 2007)
Contextualisation or the Affirmation of Patriarchal Norms?
The case for breaking cultural norms to reach Muslim women.
Melani McNeal, MA0
Regional Director Arab World and Africa, Interserve
1 INTRODUCTION
‘Reach a man and you can reach a family, or even a
community, with the good news’. ‘The Gospel must
be introduced within the cultural context of those we
are seeking to reach’.
Sentiments such as these have played a
dominant role in devising strategies for
introducing Muslims to Jesus Christ which
largely focus on reaching men. Many themes
and theories of contextualisation in relation to
evangelism have pointed to dominant aspects
of culture in Muslim societies and sought
approaches that respect and honour those
central pillars. Within this context Western
i
missionaries have often adopted distinctive
c
cultural forms in an effort to build bridges for
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the proclamation of the Gospel. Scriptures that
a
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reflect themes of reaching the male head of
the household and therefore the whole family
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provide a theological basis on which to build
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these theories and strategies. The centurion
S
in Acts 10 is a cornerstone often quoted in this
respect.
This paper reflects on these strategies by
questioning some prevailing missiological
paradigms that advocate a single-minded
focus on men to the near exclusion of women.
Muslim women constitute almost one tenth of
the world’s population and yet there appears
to be limited effort in developing strategies
aimed at reaching out to them. Articulations of
patriarchy for many women of the Arab World
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exclude them from the mainstreams of life. It
protects and punishes them as the repositories
of cultural identity. This paper contends that
certain popular approaches to presenting the
Gospel continue to marginalise or exclude
e
Muslim women, demeaning their value and
in
denying their identity. It asks whether there
are other themes in the Bible that articulate a
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more inclusive approach to bringing the Good
a
News to Muslims, looking particularly at Jesus’
g
encounters with women and some of the stories
a
of women of faith recorded in scripture.
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The paper begins with an examination of
s
constructions of women in societies where
patriarchy and Islam intersect. This is followed
by reflections on women’s identity as seen in
relationship with God and goes on to look at
the implications of these positions for reaching
Muslim women with the Gospel, challenging
some accepted norms of contextualisation.
2 LESS THAN A MAN
Within both Arab and other Muslim societies
patriarchy is culturally articulated through
structures, social mores, laws and political
power, all justified by reference to Islam in both
doctrine and practice. Islam’s central role in the
self-definition and cultural reality of Muslims
encourages this. Within these societies women
are the repositories of culture and tradition.
Together, culture, customs and laws outline the space
available for a woman’s definition of self, the cross-
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 St Francis Magazine Nr. 2 Vol. III (September 2007)
cutting factors she must daily negotiate in her actions,
and the boundaries against which she must push for
self-affirmation and change.1
Women are often excluded from decision
making processes where cultural, religious
and societal concerns intersect. Suad Joseph,
in an article on citizenship and gender in the
Middle East describes the ‘pervasiveness of
patriarchy’ and its over-arching influence in
shaping the lives of women, defining their
identity and umpiring their behaviour.2 The
enmeshing of patriarchy in local cultural power
structures is described by Fareeda Shaheed
and Khawar Mumtaz, in their book Women of
Pakistan: Two Steps Forward and One Step Back
as being symbiotic: creating an interdependent
relationship between those structures that is
always detrimental to women.3
Patriarchal structures of power deprive women
of access to resources isolating them within
the discourse of male domination. A woman
i s
always needs someone to advocate for her in
c
her family, society and religion. Her male
relatives or their representative determine
r a
her access to anything outside her confined,
‘private’, read male-articulated, world. Khaled
n Do present models of contextualisation reflect
F
Abou El Fadl says “… patriarchy feeds on the
eradication of women’s moral agency; it erases
t
and marginalises women.”4 Women have no
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value, no identity, no expression of self outside
that expressed in their relationships to the males
of their family. Women live with the constant
risk of being victimised in male games of
politics and power, their feuds or their sense of
morality. Males fight out battles for domination
in the lives and bodies of their women or the
women of their enemies. Likewise society and
State define themselves in their treatment of
women.
According to Abou El Fadl “patriarchy
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exploits the instruments of religious authority
but ends up displacing God’s authority all
together.”5 While it is acknowledged patriarchy
is a phenomenon of cultural organisation
that exists in most cultures in some form, its
exploitation by Islam as an articulation of social
organisation and religions cohesion has resulted
in exploitation and excesses. Consequently
women are excluded, denounced and defined,
not only socially but also in their access to
matters of faith and religion. “Men have
authority over women because Allah has made
e
the one superior to the other, and because they
spend their wealth to maintain them. Good
in
women are obedient…” (Q 4:34)
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Culture and religion intersects to endow
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patriarchy with a potency that creates many
g
abuses of women in Muslim societies.
a
Acknowledging this reality does not deny the
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existence of richness and strength in these
women’s lives that can both challenge and teach
non-Arab/non-Muslim societies. The question
to be examined though is how mission today
should interact with these patriarchal structures.
God’s message for Muslim women living in
societies that use a religious framework to
justify patriarchal exploitation of women? Or,
do such models support and sustain an ongoing
marginalisation and exploitation of women?
3 CHILD OF GOD
Miriam Adeney, in her book Daughters of
Islam, notes a number of myths circulating in
today’s world of mission concerning reaching
Muslim women.6 These include:
1. a Muslim woman can’t come to Christ and
grow in Christ unless her husband (father/
guardian) becomes a believer too
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 St Francis Magazine Nr. 2 Vol. III (September 2007)
2. a Muslim family will feel more threatened
if a daughter or wife comes to Christ than if it
is a son or husband
3. Muslim men and women can be
evangelised and discipled together using the
same strategies and scriptural texts.
4. Muslim women should not be evangelised
if there are not Christian men available to
evangelise the men.
While the passion for contextualisation has
been a necessary counter-measure to cultural
imperialism and western-colonisation in
Christianity it must be asked whether this is a
Biblical model or the swing of the pendulum
to another excess. Real liberation for Muslim
women is rooted in truth. They are created in
the image of God, redeemed by Christ, capable
of being empowered by the Spirit and called to
active service in God’s world.7
The story of creation denies patriarchy as a
system that places differing value on men and
i
women. “And God created man in His own
c
image, in the image of God He created him;
n
male and female He created them.” (Genesis
a
r
1:27) Women were not created half a man,
dependent on culture, tradition, society and
F
state to articulate their personhood and identity.
t
Their prime source of identity is found in God,
S
as His creation and not mediated by their male
relatives.
While cultural expressions of patriarchy in
Islam seek to hide women away in the ‘private’
sphere, the story of Hagar in Genesis reveals
she was not hidden from God. He saw and
responded to her need and heart cry: ‘God you
see me’ (Genesis 16:13). Being the servant of
a woman in a world where social structures
meant that she was out of sight, God saw her.
Hannah, Esther, Ruth and Naomi, along with
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the many women whose stories are told in the
Old Testament, reveal that God heard their cries
and responded to their expressed felt needs,
unmediated by male relatives. Whether they
remained part of their community or were
planted into a new one, they were valued and
honoured by God both in private and in public,
individually and as part of their communities.
Many were called to bear a heavy load because
of their relationship with God, but He proved
Himself faithful to them and their needs.
Women were also affirmed when God came
e
in Jesus: the faith of Mary who was chosen
by God to bear His Son; the prophetess Anna
in
who confirmed the uniqueness of Jesus; Mary,
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commended for learning from Jesus; Mary and
a
Martha who were affirmed in their confession
g
of Christ when their brother died; Jesus also
a
commended Mary who anointed his feet for
breaking out of her culture.
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Women travelled with Jesus and supported
s
him. He ministered to women: the woman
at the well, the widow of Nain, the woman
crippled by a spirit for 18 years, Peter’s mother-
in-law, the woman taken in adultery, Jairus’
daughter, the haemorrhaging woman and the
Syrophonecian woman.8 Quoting Tucker and
Liefield, in their book Daughters of the Church:
Women in Ministry from New Testament Times to
the Present, Adeney builds the picture of Jesus’
relationships with women:
making a clear break with custom, Jesus had women
learning from him as disciples and travelling with him
in service. He engaged in theological dialogue with
women. He helped women in need and in sin without
demeaning them. He treated men and women alike
with regard to their failing. He encouraged both men
and women in their faith. He was absolutely pure in his
relations with women.9
Cultural articulations of patriarchy in Jesus’
day were not a barrier to His interaction with
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 St Francis Magazine Nr. 2 Vol. III (September 2007)
women, hearing their stories, meeting their
needs, challenging their life-styles, calling
them to faith. The Samaritan woman at the
well, isolated within her culture and judged by
its standards became the messenger through
which good news was brought to her people.
The woman caught in adultery, victimised and
condemned within her patriarchal cultural and
religious context, was forgiven and liberated
by Jesus. These, and many other, women had
personal encounters and interactions with Jesus
that changed their lives and often those of their
communities. Jesus did not depend on the male
relatives of these women for His interaction
with them. A true reflection of the biblical
story acknowledges that on other occasions
women met God through male relatives or
community leaders, men of peace who provided
a bridge for the good news; Jairus’ daughter, the
family of the centurion, Peter’s mother-in-law
being some examples.
i
Strategies for evangelism and discipleship
c
that exclude women, affirming excesses of
patriarchy that confine and contain them
n
a
within their identity as formed by the males
r
of family, society, state and religion, are not, I
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believe, modelled on Jesus’ interactions with
the patriarchal structures of His day. Cultural
t
sensitivity, while necessary, ought not to dictate
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the programme of the Gospel. According to
Adeney “… strategy decisions that affect women
are made in ignorance…’10, because although
most Christian and mission leaders value data
on women the reality is they rarely have time
or take the time to pursue it. Is it possible to
develop strategies inclusive of Muslim women
and their needs while remaining appropriate
within the context of their lives and those of the
broader community where necessary? How do
we challenge exclusion which denies the dignity
of relationship with Christ?
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4 INCLUSIVE STRATEGIES
A gendered approach to evangelism will in
some instances be necessary if Muslim lives and
communities are to be transformed. In many
Muslim communities it is often women who
preserve the religion. Men have contact with
the outside world and are prone to corruption
by it but women preserve the rituals of religion
for the family and wider community. Therefore
it is a false assumption that when a man is
evangelised and becomes a Christian women
will automatically follow suit. Power within
e
the family context often rests with the matriarch
in
of the family, while authority rests with the
male head. Qur’anic classes for women are
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flourishing in many places today. There are
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religious sisterhoods, voluntary associations for
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laywomen, as well as a growth in fundamental
a
feminism. Including women is an essential
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strand for reaching whole communities.
s
The emphasis on both the Insider Movement
and the higher end of Travis’ contextualisation
spectrum, which seeks to preserve the form
and ritual of the mosque, although revitalised
by faith encounters of individuals within those,
provide few answers for women searching for
faith or seeking inclusion into wholeness of
life as followers of Isa. It has been found that
MBBs have excluded their wives or females
because they continue to be perceived as only
women who are not able to understand matters
of faith. There is no natural flow for women
to come to faith through male members of
the family. Mission strategy rather than local
insider movements has shaped contextualisation
and demonstrated a lack of understanding of
cultural forces and their detrimental impact on
the Gospel.
In most Arab countries minimal provisions
are made for women to pursue or practice
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 St Francis Magazine Nr. 2 Vol. III (September 2007)
religion outside the confines of their home or
family environment. Unable to build up merit
through the public practice of her religion a
woman faces a constant battle to make provision
for her judgement day. Christian programmes
built on these existing practices affirm and
give validity to women’s exclusion and her
precarious position in eternity. This is counter
to Jesus’ interactions with women where He
affirmed them in matters of faith publicly and
embraced them into multi-facetted expressions
of a life of faith.
With the making of many mission strategies
we weary the flesh and add little to the basic
necessity of mission: human beings responding
to God’s love in their lives and sharing it with
other human beings within the framework
of linguistic and cultural language that truly
communicates. Muslim women need to know
and experience love, God’s love. God’s love
sent His Son as a man to live among us. What
i s
does that look like for Muslims, men and
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women?
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God’s love in Jesus was expressed through the
a
healing of the woman with the haemorrhage,
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forgiveness and acceptance for the woman
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caught in adultery as well as affirmation for
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Mary pouring expensive perfume on His feet.
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Giving dignity to the individual Jesus lifted her
up within the context of her community. In
the same way today, His love will be expressed
in different ways that meet the needs of
different Muslim women. Habiba found
his justice and mercy in the treatment of the
woman caught in adultery drawing her to
Christ. Nawal experienced His love through
the love of a family who accepted her into the
circle of their lives. Latifa saw His love as she
witnessed a communion service.11 Dreams
and visions, answered prayer, healing, hope in
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desperate situations, practical expressions of
help, acceptance, challenge, learning English,
loving friendships, all of these and many more
have been among God’s ways to share His
transforming love with Muslim women.
Holistic or integral ministry, at its heart, is
inclusive of women as part of the whole
community. Concepts which are central to
understanding holistic ministry challenge
principles in contextualisation strategies that
categorise and separate male and female within
their cultural framework and fail to nurture
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the inclusion of the whole of mankind into the
in
whole gospel. Relationships and structures in
society, as well as individual lives, have been
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impacted by sin. The Gospel, of necessity,
g a
must impact and transform all of those. It is
good news for the whole man and cannot be
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divorced from those structures in society which
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distort and corrupt wholeness in Christ. There
is a clear challenge to structures of patriarchy,
culturally or religiously expressed, which deny
the wholeness of women and marginalise them
in matters of God’s love.
Strategies for reaching and discipling Muslim
women need to be based on an incarnational
model that has a holistic framework. Those
who then seek, come to faith and are discipled
must be allowed to define and articulate
culturally appropriate expressions of their life
of faith and the body of Christ. While not
denying the need for strategy and intentionality
in working out the fulfilment of the great
commission, the transformation of lives,
cultures and societies is a work of God’s Spirit,
who blows where He wills.
5 CONCLUSION
Islam is integral to the defining of self and
society. Consequently, patriarchy is mostly
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 St Francis Magazine Nr. 2 Vol. III (September 2007)

expressed and justified by reference to His image, creation He called good.

Islam. The task of reaching Muslim women
cannot be carried out solely within present
contextualisation frameworks where men are
favoured and women excluded. Women’s
lives that are empowered through encounter
with Jesus Christ, as demonstrated by His
encounters with women in the Gospels, will
challenge and be challenged by cultural and
religious issues of identity. These challenges
involve questions of how identity is formed,
who defines it and how do definitions of gender
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Adeney, M. (2002) Daughters of Islam: Building Bridges with
Muslim Women, InterVarsity Press, Illinois and Leicester
Bayat, A (2002) International Journal of Middle East Studies,
34, 1 - 28
Joseph, S. (1996) Middle East Report, 198, 4 - 10.
Love, F. and Eckheart, J (eds) (2000) Longing to Call Them
Sisters, William Carey Library, Pasadena
Mumtaz, K. and Shaheed, F. (1987) Women of Pakistan:
Two Steps Forward, One Step Back?, Zed Books, London
and New Jersey.

e
fit into definitions of community and those of Nikides, B (2006) Evaluating “Insider movements”: C5
collective and personal self. Redefining gender

in
(Messianic Muslims), www.stfrancismagazine.info
automatically necessitates a readjustment of the Saigol, R (1995) Articulation of Gender in Education Discourse

z
in Pakistan, ASR Publications, Lahore
broader culture and collectivity. The Gospel

a
Shaheed, F (2001) Constructing Identities, Women’s Agency
challenges social power structures that deny the and The Muslim World, WLUML, Lahore

g
fullness of God’s creation in men and women. Shaheed, F, Warraich, S.A, Balchin, C, and Gazdar, A

a
The marginalisation of Muslim women in (eds) (1998) Shaping Women’s Lives: Law, Practice and
strategies of evangelism and discipleship Strategies in Pakistan Shirkat Gah, Lahore

M
Wadud, A (2006) Inside the Gender Jihad, Oneworld,
represents a failure to reflect the whole Gospel
Oxford

s
for the whole man.

ci
Jesus’ life and ministry provides a model for
mission today as it has done since He came to ENDNOTES

n
0

a
earth. Challenging and upsetting the prevailing The name is a pseudonym.

r
1
religious framework He met individuals F. Shaheed, S.A Warraich, C. Balchin and A. Gazdar
(eds), Shaping Women’s Lives: Law, Practice and Strategies in

F
and communities at their place of need, Pakistan (Shirkat Gah, Lahore, 1998), p. 61.
demonstrating the power of God and His love

t
2
S. Joseph, Middle East Report, 198, (1996), pp. 4 - 10.
to transform. Women were always included in 3
K. Mumtaz and F. Shaheed, Women of Pakistan: Two Steps

S
the orbit of His life and ministry. Their needs Forward, One Step Back? (Zed Books, London and New
touched Him and called forth compassion and Jersey, 1987)
4
A. Wadud, Inside the Gender Jihad (Oneworld, Oxford,
mercy. Culture was no barrier to Him reaching 2006), p. xii.
out and meeting their needs. Proponents of 5
Ibid., p. xii.
certain contextualisation models have failed to 6
M. Adeney, Daughters of Islam: Building Bridges with
examine and understand culture and its impact Muslim Women (InterVarsity Press, Illinois and Leicester,
on individuals and community and so have not 2002), p. 20.
7
Ibid., p. 63.
accommodated the example modelled for us in 8
Ibid., p. 65.
the life of Jesus. Mission today ought to beware 9
Ibid., p. 66.
that in the strict demand for cultural relevance it 10
Ibid., p. 8.
11
does not become a proponent of twisted truths Ibid., pp. 45-58.
that deny God’s creation of man and woman in
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