Crescenti Kelli Crescenti Political Islam, Hassan Barari 2 May 2011 Womens Rights in Islam Throughout history, the

relationship between women and religion has been a complex

one, blurred by human nature and societal status quos. In todays societies, especially in Western culture, more people have begun to look at issues of sexism within religion. Islam is one religion that has received much criticism for its treatment of women. However, varying views about this issue exist in literature on Islam. These views can be divided into hostile, apologetic, and reformist attitudes. This paper will address scholars from each of these categories and their opinions on feminism and Islam in order to find an approach that seems most reasonable. Making up over one billion of the worlds population, Muslims hold a religious belief that, regardless of an outsiders opinion of Islam, is important to consider and take seriously. Within the Muslim population is a variety of interpretations of holy scriptures and beliefs about how to carry out the will of God in the human life. Among these beliefs are the issues surrounding women and their rights. Many women have been oppressed and harmed in the name of Islam, leaving reason to be critical of the religion. However, some argue that this ill treatment only exists for a minority of Muslim women, and still others argue we must separate such prejudiced human actions and beliefs committed and held in the name of Islam from the true intentions of the religion. Given the amount of Muslims in the world, their varying degrees of devotion, and the fact that half of these people are women, Islam and womens rights cannot simply diverge into separate paths. The two entities are too intertwined, specifically when looking at the influence

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of Islam in Muslim societies and governments and the consequential effect this influence has on the women of these societies. For instance, Islam affects women in regard to their role in the family, their participation in the workforce, their freedoms regarding modesty, and the laws and public opinion concerning domestic violence, sexual abuse, honor killings, contraception, and abortion. Inevitably Islam and womens rights are linked to each other, but the question remains as to whether or not the two are compatible with one another. Introducing this issue, Valentine Moghadam provides a summary of all the major themes of womens rights in Islam, some of which will be discussed in this paper:
Although Islamic law gives women the right to own and dispose of property, they inherit less property than men do. Women are required to obtain permission of father, husband, or other male guardian to marry, seek employment, start a business, or travel. The highly formal Islamic marriage contract does require the consent of the wife, and in some countries women may insert stipulations into the contract, such as the condition that she be the only wife. Marriage, however, remains largely an agreement between two families rather than two individuals with equal rights and obligations. Moreover, marriage gives the husband the right of access to his wife's body, and marital rape is not recognized (Shehadeh, 1998; Welchman, 2001). Only men can divorce unilaterally and without cause. Children acquire citizenship and religious status through their fathers, not their mothers. Muslim women may not marry non-Muslim men. In many countries, the criminal code provides for acquittal or a reduction of sentence for men who commit honor crimes (147).

The first category mentioned above of scholars on Islam is the hostile authors. Sometimes the views of these authors are easily dismissed and labeled Islamophobic, racist, or narrow-minded. However, they often raise legitimate concerns when it comes to womens rights. One of the most prominent hostile writers in the West is Robert Spencer. This author has a tendency to bring up the most controversial and stereotypical condemnations of Islam. The tactics of his criticisms usually consist of attacking specific acts that violate human rights in a

Crescenti Muslim culture and then finding verses from the Quran that enable him to attribute the acts to Islam. In one such criticism, stated in his popular news column (and website) Jihad Watch, Spencer develops a direct causal relationship between Islam and honor killings, arguing that Aasiya Hassan, killed by her husband, was a victim at the hands of a man who imbibed the Islamic teachings that Muzzammil Hassan seems to have learned very well (Spencer 17). While many will agree that Aasiya Hassan was clearly victimized, few people, even Muslims who have committed honor killings, will claim that honor killings are a result of Islamic teachings. Such killings are self-explanatory in that people commit them in order to protect the so-called honor of their family. Spencer admits [t]here is no sanction given in the Qur'an or Islamic law for honor-killing, but quickly adds that the practice is encouraged by the

shame/honor culture that Islam has created, a statement backed up by little substantial evidence (Spencer 17). The most commonly quoted Quranic verses used for such evidence is Verse 4:34. Even Spencer provides this verse, arguing that [t]he Qur'an says: Men shall take full care of women with the bounties which God has bestowed more abundantly on the former than on the latter ... And as for those women whose ill-will you have reason to fear, admonish them |first|, then leave them alone in bed, then beat them (Spencer 17). This verse has been translated and interpreted in many ways, and this paper will approach the interpretations of such verses from other scholars later on. Simplistic views like Robert Spencers are further encouraged by the stories and opinions of former Muslims like Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Hirsi Ali, a Somali refugee to Denmark, has an interesting life story. Born into a fundamentalist Muslim family, Hirsi Ali suffered from the female oppression prevalent in Arab-Muslim cultures. Consequently, she now expresses one of the most hostile and hard-lined views of Islam in the West. Discussing in an interview the

Crescenti tactics used in the Wests wars with Islamic nations, Hirsi Ali supports that we are at war with Islam.you crush your enemyAsked to respond to the comment that "we are not at war with Islam," she offer[s], without answering directly, "There is no moderate Islam (Schafer & Koth 19). Criticisms of Hirsi Alis hostile approach claim that she is using her own oppressive experience with Islam to define the entire religion. David Schafer and Michelle Koth explain that Hirsi Ali didn't acknowledge that such tribal practices as female genital mutilation and "honor killings" were contrary to Islamic (Sharia) lawShe wasn't impressed by Muslim women who said that they had loving relationships with their own husbands, and that Islam wasn't a problem for them (Schafer & Koth 33). However, contrasting hostile authors such as Spencer and Hirsi Ali, apologetic authors take a much more sympathetic stance towards Islam, believing in the religions peaceful nature

and rejecting the notion that radical Muslims and extremists represent the views of all Muslims. They not only see Islamic texts as promoting love but also believe most Muslims to be compassionate and generous people. John Esposito and Dalia Mogahed are two Islamic apologists. In their article Who Will Speak for Islam?, they support their beliefs through analyzing Gallup polls of Muslim opinion around the globe, which tend to prove that most Muslims do not at all fall into the same category of thought as terrorists and extremists. One such polling quoted by the authors states shows that [m]ajorities of womenas well as men in virtually every country surveyed say that women deserve the same legal rights as men, to vote without influence from family members, to work at any job where they are qualified, and even to serve in the highest levels of government (Esposito & Mogahed 52). The authors similarly claim, based on polling, that [i]nstead of a misogynistic corpus of ossified medieval

Crescenti edicts, Muslim women see their sacred law as a vibrant work in progress. They associate

Shariah compliance with justice for women, scientific advancement, and protecting human rights (47-48). Lastly, Esposito and Mogahed show that in Egypt, as in other parts of the Muslim world, this attitude is not just a theory, as a full third of professional and technical workers in Egypt are women, on a par with Turkey and South Korea (52). Each of these facts demonstrates that public opinion and even the professional reality in the Muslim world is not as misogynistic as many in the West claim it to be. However, like the arguments of the hostile authors, these numbers say more about Muslims than they do about Islam itself. Another Islamic apologist, Tyseer Aboulnasr discusses that, contrary to popular belief, Islam is a religion that is compatible with many social issues, including womens rights. In essence, Aboulnasr argues, Islam even promotes womens rights. To prove this argument, she highlight[s] the status of women in the actual teachings of Islam as opposed to the practices of many so-called Muslim countries (Aboulnasr 1). The author first points out that throughout the Quran it is repeated over and over that men and women are created as companions on earth to complement and comfort one another, citing that, in the Quran, both Adam and Eve were tempted by Satan and reprimanded for eating the forbidden fruit (1). In addition, each of the Prophets wives were respected and valued for their contribution to the teachings of Islam, providing examples for future Muslim women of a womans worth as not simply a wife but also an individual with a powerful brain. In regards to domestic abuse, men are told that the best among you are the kindest to the women in their families. They are often reminded not to take advantage of the woman's relative physical weakness since they will eventually have to answer to an even stronger Being, God himself (Aboulnasr 2). The apologist also discusses womens property rights in Islam, which were highly progressive for the time period, and reasons behind

Crescenti conservative clothing, intended for both men and women so as to interact in society without the presence of sexual tension (2-3). Conclusively, Aboulnasr finds that Muslims, like people of other beliefs, have done a super job of twisting their religion to suit the needs of the more

powerful in their society by generalizing specific rules on the one hand and limiting general rules on the other as they find convenient (3). In the middle of these two viewpoints is the reformist approach to analyzing Islam. Some argue that Islam and womens rights are completely incompatible with each other. Others argue that Islam is in fact a promoter of womens rights but the West tends to see only the negative of Islam. However, a third overarching opinion looks beyond each of these black-andwhite views. Judging by the majority of Muslims in the world, who vary in degrees of lovingness and hatred just as people of other religions do, the concept that Islam promotes evil seems too simplistic and narrow-minded. Similarly, given the values of respect, acceptance, and equality encouraged by the Prophet, Islam cannot be fully antagonistic to womens rights. However, one must take into consideration that the devaluing and oppression of women are present in many Muslim cultures. Furthermore, various Koranic texts have been used to support sexist structures and actions. These range from verses that label the male as the authority in the household to those that insist women receive less inheritance in the family and less respect in the public sphere (quranicteachings.co.uk/women). Although, these verses are merely a few of many and can always be subject to interpretation. So what does the common disregard of womens rights in Muslim communities stem from if womens rights in Islamic texts are clearly still debatable? According to reformist thinkers, two factors account for the presence of sexism in Muslim societies. Firstly, they argue that Islamic texts have been and still are interpreted by men in control, which enabled them to

Crescenti keep their powerful positions. Islam was born within a patriarchal society and has therefore been shaped throughout time by patriarchal interpretations. Secondly, reformists argue that many Muslims still today are looking at Islam in the wrong light. Islam was progressive for womens rights when it was first established in the sixth century. However, progressivism fifteen centuries ago was quite different from what it is today. One does not find true Islam in the exact words of the texts but rather through the values extracted from the words. In other words, while hostile and apologetic authors can debate womens rights in Islam through

mentioning the number of wives Mohammed had or his extension of property rights for women, reformists assert that neither argument is important at face value. In fact, such surface readings of the Islamic texts are the reason for the patriarchal state of Islam today. Through holding onto the values of Islam rather than its specific wording, the religion can change along with society, applying its morals, such as respecting women, to the Twenty-First Century. In her article Patriarchy in Transition: Women and the Changing Family in the Middle East, Valentine Moghadam discusses that sexism in Arab-Islamic culture is oftentimes attributed to Islam but is in actuality due to the social patriarchy that has long existed throughout Arab history. The reformist begins that in order to explain the persistence of patriarchy and the preoccupation with women and the family, one must also look at the social structure: forms of economic organization, property relations, social classes, forms of stratification and segmentation, and the state (Moghadam 156-157). Based on the Arab culture of the time, Islam privileges patrilineal bonds and enjoins men to take responsibility for the support of their wives and children. In the Arab-Islamic family, the wife's main obligations are to maintain a home, care for her children, and obey her husband. He is entitled to exercise his marital authority by restraining his wife's movements and preventing her from showing herself

Crescenti in public (145). In other words, with this dynamic the norm in Arab culture, one would only expect a religion developed in the Arab world to possess some of the same patriarchal

characteristics. Moghadam adds that [w]hen family laws were codified and modernized across the Muslim world much later, they were based on a combination of the Islamic legal schools (Hanafi, Maleki, Hanbali, Shafii), pre-lslamic or tribal customs, and Westem (French, Swiss, Belgian) legal systems (142). Shirin Ebadi discusses her reformist approaches to Islam and, similarly to Moghadam, stresses that male patriarchs have hijacked the religion. In her opinion, the religion of the sexist men in power is an ideological tool of power. Mine is that which proclaims the equality of all people, regardless of their sex or religion (Ebadi 72). She logically concludes that the texts of our religion, as with all texts, can and should be interpreted in accordance with the needs of society and the time we live in (73). Likewise, a group of Muslim women in Malaysia have fought for the reformation of Islam to be more inclusive of womens rights, ignited recently by the decision of leading clerics in Malaysia to issue a fatwa against yoga for women. This movement has been met with much criticism, but still the movement is strong. At a recent conference, the group spent the weekend brainstorming and learning the best Islamic arguments to take back to their own societies as defenses against clerics who insist that women's lives are dictated by men's strict interpretations of Islam (Travernise). These women seem to hold a view similar to Ebadis, believing that a duality currently exists in the Muslim world, expressing to vastly different interpretations of Islam. Most importantly, these women find that [t]he Koran must be read in a historical context, and that laws derived from it can change with the times (Travernise).

Crescenti On another reformist note, Amina Wadud reminds us of the plurality of thought in Islamic feminism. It is a complex issue with many opinions. As womens rights in Islam are being more widely discussed, the world should remember, [d]espite many similarities, not all women are the same. Not all Muslim women or Islamic feminisms are the same (Wadud 436).

Waduds own contribution to the field has focused on the efcacy of inter-Islamic dialogue for change and transformation, especially against centuries of practiced patriarchy and other forms of discrimination in the name of Islam (436). The scholar has examined the meaning and importance of the Islamic word tawhid. The word, she explains, is a more dynamic word than just monotheism in the theological sense. I translate it as unicity. It means God is one, God is unique, God is united and God unites all things. In the latter part of this denition lies the basis for non-discrimination and a challenge to patriarchy in Islamic worldviews (436-437). This trend of using Islam to defend womens rights seems to be the most viable way of promoting any change in a society that has many issues to approach in regards to the status of women. There may be hope, in this time of reform in the Arab world, for a new Islam, one that applies the true meanings of Islam equality and respect for all to the Muslim world of today. Another important aspect of Islam to remember in this conversation on womens rights is ijtihad, the ability to reinterpret Islam. Supported most, as assumed, by reformist scholars, this belief, I have concluded is the key to applying the Prophets Sixth Century motives of giving women a place in the world to the Twenty-First Century, in which many people have realized that women deserve not merely a place in the world but rather world of equal rights and opportunity.

Crescenti Works Cited Aboulnasr, Tyseer. "Women and Islam." Karmayog. Web. 3 May 2011. <http://www.karmayog.org/search/karmayogsearchresults.htm> Ebadi, Shirin. "'TELL THEM TO USE THEIR HEADS'." Index on Censorship 33.4 (2004): 7276. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 2 May 2011. Esposito, John L., and Dalia Mogahed. "Who Will Speak for Islam?." World Policy Journal (MIT Press)25.3 (2008): 47-57. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 2 May 2011. Moghadam, Valentine M. "Patriarchy in Transition: Women and the Changing Family in the Middle East."Journal of Comparative Family Studies 35.2 (2004): 137-162. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 2 May 2011. Schafer, David, and Michelle Koth. "Absolute Infidel: The Evolution of Ayaan Hirsi Ali." Humanist 68.1 (2008): 19-35. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 7 May 2011. Spencer, Robert. "Jihad Watch." Human Events 65.9 (2009): 17. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 2 May 2011. Travernise, Sabrina. "Women Use Koran to Demand Equal Rights." New York Times. The New York Times Company, 16 Feb. 2009. Web. 2 May 2011. <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/16/world/asia/16iht-women.1.20210920.html>. Wadud, Amina. "Foreword." International Feminist Journal of Politics 10.4 (2008): 435438. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 2 May 2011.

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