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Overviews
III
The Muslim
Feminist Collection Reviewed
Hibri, Azizah-al-
"A Study of Islamic
Herstory: Or How Did We
Ever Get Into This
Mess?" Women and
Islam: Women's Studies
International Forum
Magazine, Vol. 5, (1982)
Schimmel,
Anne Marie, "Women
in Mystical Islam,"
Ibid.
Smith,
Jane "Eve: Islamic
Image of Woman,"
Ibid.
Dorph,
Kenneth Jan,
"Islamic Law in
Contemporary North
Africa: A Study of the
Laws of Divorce in the
Maghreb," Ibid.
Ahmed,
Leila, "Feminism and
Feminist Movements in the
Middle East, a
Preliminary Exploration:
Turkey, Egypt, Algeria,
Peoples Democratic
Republic of Yemen,"
Ibid.
Saadawi,
Nawal el, "Women and
Islam," Ibid.
ZeinEd-Din,
Nazirah ,
"Removing the Veil
and Veiling," Ibid.
Mernissi, Fatima, Beyond the Veil:
Male-Female Dynamics in a
Modern Muslim Society ,
Introduction and
Conclusion (2nd edition , 84?)
Stowasser,
Barbara Freyer,
"Religious Ideology,
Women, and the Family:
The Islamic
Paradigm," The
Islamic Impulse, edited
by B. Stowasser,
Baffoun, Alya, "Research in
the Social Sciences on
North African Women:
Problems, Trends,
Needs." Social
Science Research and
Women in the Arab World,
UNESCO (1984)
Rassam, Amal, "Toward a
Theoretical Framework for
the Study of Women in the
Arab World." Ibid.
Kader,
Soha Abdel, "A
Survey of Trends in
Social Sciences Research
on Women in the Arab
Region, 1960-1980"
ibid.
Waines,
David,
"Through a
Veil Darkly: The Study of
Women in Muslim
Societies-A Review
Article."
The purpose of this essay is to
survey a number of articles on the topic
of women in Islam which has been deemed,
"the Muslim feminist perspective." They
are writers who if not Muslims
themselves, have either been directly or
indirectly influenced by the Islamic
paradigm and are equally influenced by
the outlook of Western feminism. The
essay will attempt to expose a number of
issues in determining some pattern in
the way Muslim feminists treat the
subject of women in Islam, 1) how do
these writers project and incorporate
the normative material from the primary
sources onto the subject at hand? 2)
what are the principal preoccupations
of the subject of women
in Islam for Muslim
feminists? 3) in what
ways do the assumptions
informing Western
feminism affect the
treatment of women in
Islam? 4) what are the
ideological divisions
within the literature
itself? This essay will
begin with some examples
of how Muslim feminist
literature has used the
normative material and
then discuss how a number
of Western feminist
notions have been adapted
to the subject such as
the public private
dichotomy, the
emancipation/liberation
construct, legal reform
as a goal for change in
Muslim societies,
patriarchy and the
ideological influence of
Marxism. In the
conclusion, questions
will be raised about the
appropriateness of these
models in illuminating
the subject.
Both
Azizah al-Hibri and Soha
Abdel-Kader divide the
literature on women in
Islam into two
categories: those who
defend Islam in its ideal
forum and do not see it
as the cause of injustice
and those who take a
critical posture viewing
Islam as an ideology
promoting women as
property and sexual
objects and thus
outlining a social order
which is rigid and
incompatible with the
needs and challenges of
the modern world. Both of
these perspectives on
women in Islam are rooted
in Western feminist
literature's
understanding of the
equality and patriarchy
constructs. Both
inequality and patriarchy
are seen at the negative
end of the spectrum of
value judgments. Hibri,
like many authors, sees
traditional practices
rather than normative
Islam as oppressive to
women as a group.
The
arguments which defend
Islam do so from a
reading of the primary
and classical sources of
Islamic knowledge. They
respond to the accusation
that Islam is guilty of
injustice /inequality
toward women. Jane Smith
takes up this accusation
in the theoretical light
by focusing on the figure
of Eve as portrayed in
the Qur'an, the Islamic
tradition, and in
contemporary Muslim
writings. Her study shows
that the scriptural Eve
is neither inferior nor
secondary to Adam and her
assumption, from a
reading of the sources,
is that such scriptural
treatment should have
immediate and obvious
ramifications for the
Muslim view of women in
general. Nawal Saadawi,
as do others,
acknowledges the rights
given women in early
Islam as emancipating.
Most all agree that women
in early Islamic
communities were active
members of the community
in a public sense. Such
insights are often
employed as evidence of
the need for reform or to
single out tradition and
the rigidity of religious
scholars in managing the
sad state of affairs of
women. In the creative
and individual
interpretation of
Qur'anic injunctions on
women by Nazirah Zein
Ed-Din, it is argued that
the Qur'anic
glorification of women,
that a women's mind is
better than a man's.
While God gave man
strength, he gave women
noble character and
reasonableness. According
to the author, this could
serve as a basis for the
social reform of women.
Barbara
Stowasser also employs
the normative and
classical prototypes in
Islamic history to make
several points: 1) that
there is nothing
iniquitous about the
blueprint for society
laid out in the Qur'an,
2) that in fact the moral
and religious equality it
espouses is of the
highest standard of human
equality, and 3) that the
source of inequality in
Islamic society may be
found in the evolving
rigidity of Islamic
jurisprudence. Stowasser
finds that due to certain
legal methodologies and
the popularization of
certain notions, rigid
"ideal types"
have emerged which net
women into a kind of
model immobility. This
author claims that such
"ideal types"
conflict with the
flexibility of the
Qur'anic injunctions and
the Hadith. Her thesis is
that, "any number of
ideal paradigms may be
formulated on the basis
of the Qur'an and the
Sunna...by which an
interpreter may arrive at
a criteria to determine
if a woman's life is
truly 'Islamic.'"
Stowasser attempts to
show that the author of
the 'ideal type' must
disregard a number of
contradictory Hadith to
arrive at his particular
definition of an ideal.
Stowasser
takes the example of the
ideal type of Islamic
women outlined by a
popular figure in
contemporary Egyptian
life, Sheikh Sha'rawi.
She claims that the tone
of Al-Sha'rawi's view is
defensive and xenophobic
of the West and that he
sees any social change as
un-Islamic. Stowasser
finds that the Hadith
material reveals a much
more flexible Islamic
order and that in most
cases, Qur'anic verses
are much broader than
Sha'rawi's view would
suggest. Stowasser does
find that the Qur'an and
Hadith do establish male
status and authority over
women as part of an
Islamic society and that
these sources emphasize
male responsibility as
protectors and providers.
This would have been
especially true within
the socio-economic
context of seventh
century Hijazi urban
society, according to Stowasser.
Public
and Private Value
Distinctions:
Western
feminism tends to define
the experience of Western
women in terms of the
public/private construct.
In the Western world,
feminist ideology has
been responsible for
describing what it sees
as the subordination of
the private domestic
sphere to the public and
a corresponding
glorification or
valorization of the
public domain, and a
devalorisation of the
private. In her critique
of the theoretical
framework for the study
of women in the Arab
world, Amal Rassam calls
the transposition of the
devaluation of the
private realm to Arab
society as the 'public
private dichotomy,'
states Rassam; "This
male-biased view is
itself based on the
assumption that what is
important and of central
value in the study of a
culture is limited to the
norms and formal
prescriptions, the rights
and obligations which
prevail among men who
hold authority, control
resources and act as
power brokers. In sum,
the formal domains of
politics and economy.
Women who have few rights
and duties in the
political sphere are thus
assumed to be unimportant
and marginal to the
social system...they
[women] are rarely
integrated into a wider
perspective, one that
views both men and women
as being equally integral
to the functioning of the
system as a whole."
Rassam clearly sees this
bias as a theoretical
obstacle in the
literature on women in
Islam and finds such
conclusions surprising in
view of the fact that
Islam is one of the few
religions which has a
well integrated view of
women, their sexuality
and their proper place in
society.
Fatima
Mernissi and Nawal al
Saadawi both take up the
public/private dichotomy.
Saadawi's work laments
the roles into which
women are socialized in
Egypt. Her tone is
combative and
confrontational when
describing her personal
efforts to free herself
from domestic exigencies
and enter public life.
Mernissi's thesis
regarding the
public/private paradigm
has been especially well
received in North America
and Europe with her book, Beyond the Veil.
Central to her position
on the public/private
dichotomy is how she
understands Islam's
notion of female
sexuality as being a
potent and aggressive
force with the potential
of provoking social
chaos, fitna. With
this explanation of
female sexuality, she
interprets Islam as using
space as a device for the
contrail of female
sexuality. This is how
she explains practices
which have traditionally
symbolized women's
relegation to the private
sphere like veiling,
seclusion and social
resistance to women in
the university and the
work place. Modernity,
according to Mernissi, is
perceived as a threat by
hegemonic (male)
interests because it is a
force attempting to
re-negotiate spatial
(public/private)
boundaries.
Rassam
suggests that some
writers are beginning to
question the
public/private dichotomy
with a construct placing
men's power and women's
power in a reciprocal
dialectic mode. In such a
construct, both public
and private are equally
important to the
reproduction of the
social order. The real
challenge, according to
Rassam, is to understand
the normative and
cultural imperatives that
produce and reproduce
this apparent dichotomy.
The
Notion of Liberation:
Muslim
feminists literature also
focuses on the causes,
the indices and the
magnitude of
emancipation/liberation
in Islamic countries. It
is to the notion of
"liberation"
that Muslim feminists are
most indebted to Western
feminist scholarship.
Desire for change and
reform in the literature
is attributed to three
causes; the influx of
Europeans to the region
within the context of
nineteenth century
colonialism, the
nationalist struggle for
independence in which
women participated in
various capacities and
third, the reform and the
movement of women into
public life as an
official policy of the
state through voting
legislation,
co-educational university
opportunities and state
sponsored encouragement
of women to join the work
force in the name of
national development. The
success or failure of
female emancipation is
often measured in the
literature by literacy
rates, employment
statistics outside the
home, level of
educational achievement,
the acquisition of the
right to vote and other
legislation reforming
Personal Statutes and
Family Law.
The
indices of Muslim female
emancipation are in part,
a reflection of the
principle preoccupation
of Western feminism: cal
struggle to win legal
reform in order to
equalize women's position
in society with respect
to that of men's. This
explains in part, the
literature's concern with
legal reform on behalf of
women in Islam and the
role of the State. Leila
Ahmed, in her discussion
on feminists movements in
the Middle East explains
that reform for the
situation of women was an
external notion coming
from changes stimulated
by the European presence.
She takes of cynical view
of the state and its role
in reform, claiming that,
"In Egypt as in
Turkey, change was
advocated for women by
men--not out of a sense
of wrong done to women
per se, but in the
interests of progress of
the nation." The
fact that Islamic
societies might advocate
reform in the context of
placing value on what was
best for the community as
whole rather than what
was best for a specific
group, women, is lost
upon Ahmed. The statement
also reveals the
influence of Western
feminism which tends to
see women as a single
atomized group in
opposition to society and
community rather than as
part of an integrated
system.
The
Role of the State:
Muslim
feminists concern with
legal reform is
furthermore evident in
Ahmed's discussion of
legal reform in the
region and its impact on
women. On a continuum,
she places those Middle
East countries farthest
from traditional Islamic
law as the most
'progressive.' Turkey is
praised for declaring
itself a modern secular
state and outlawing the
veil. She sees Islamic
law as the enemy of
women.
The
effects of legal reform
are seriously questioned
by such authors as
Kenneth Jan Dorph. Dorph
would take serious issue
with Ahmed's aversion to
Islamic law. Dorph has
done a study on Islamic
law in North Africa and
attempts to dispel the
myth of practices like
the thalath divorce which
he says has no legal
justification in the
Qur'an. He is deeply
skeptical of the
relationship between
state sponsored legal
reform and the popular
will. In his discussion
of Tunisian legal reform
is the implication that
changes which stray the
farthest from Shar'ia,
including Turkey, are
cosmetic and imposed from
the top rather than any
expression of popular
will. He interprets the
bulk of Shar'ia reform by
the state as being
ignored by the
population. Amal Rassam
on the other hand, sees
legal reform and the
state as an important
determinant of future
behavior patterns in
changing attitudes
towards women
participating fully in
social and economic
public life.
The
Universality of Patriarchy
Patriarchy
is another Western
Feminist construct which
informs the paradigm of
Muslim feminists
writings. Male dominance
over women in Muslim
society is often cited as
an injustice which is
built into the social
system. Muslim marriage
is based on the premise
that social order can
only be maintained if the
woman's dangerous
potential for chaos is
restrained, so the
argument goes. Because
Western feminists tend to
interpret power as
economic power, women in
the patriarchal family
who are materially
dependent on the male
head of household for
their welfare are seen as
powerless. The patriarchy
construct places women in
a subordinate
relationship to men. This
is a constant theme in
the work of Fatima
Mernissi. The patriarchy
construct is justified
through tradition and/or
Islam and the
heterosexual relationship
is used to control and
dominate women's socially
destructive potential.
Mernissi, as do many
writers in the patriarchy
mindset, characterizes
the psychological aspects
of the heterosexual
couple as adversarial,
oppositional and
competitive.
Nawal
el Saadawi also rails
against the patriarchy
construct and the roles
she claims it forces upon
women. According to
Saadawi, integrity is
considered a male
attribute. Typical of her
own experience she
writes, "Very
often, the epithet 'male'
followed me whenever I
excelled in my studies or
work. If I kept my word
and fulfilled my promise,
they said 'man'; if I
walked fast in flat
shoes, they said, 'man';
if I practiced sports and
built up my muscles, they
said, 'man.' Her work
is representative of
Arabic literature on
women and its synthesis
with the literature of
the 'liberation movement'
in the Western world with
the literature on the
status and conditions of
Arab women, according to
Soha Abdel Kader.
According to Amal Rassam,
patriarchy has failed as
a systematic framework of
analysis in both the
Western and the Muslim
feminist environments.
Marx
and Feminism:
The
literature on women in
Islam from the Muslim
feminist perspective is
equally influenced by
marxist ideology. In the
work of F. Engels, The
Origin of the Family,
he said, "The modern
family is founded upon
the open or concealed
slavery of the wife; man
is the bourgeois while
his wife is the
proletariat." Alya
Baffoun in her survey of
research on North African
women outlines several
notions influencing
marxist interpretations
of the subject; 1) all
social relations of
dependence and
oppression, of which the
subordination of one sex
to the other is only one
example, take their
origin exclusively in
economic domination, 2)
it is necessary to study
not only that oppression,
but also the prevailing
social institutions and
ideological authorities
and their influence on
the organization of the
family, the rules
governing sexuality, and
the status of women, and
3) reform must by related
to the present stage in
the development of
international capitalism
and to the changes that
have occurred in its
patterns of organization.
One of the salient
characteristics of this
development is the
impressive number of
women now employed in the
production process.
Amal
Rassam points out that
scholars working within
the Marxist framework do
not conceptualize women's
status in terms of the
public/private dichotomy.
Utilizing such concepts
as 'patriarchy' and
'domestic division of
labor,' they seek to
understand the genesis
and perpetuation of
women's universal
subordination in terms of
the social organization
of labor in the
household.
Fatima
Mernissi uses a class
based marxist explanation
for the forces
perpetuating Islamic
fundamentalism. Keeping
in mind the fact that
Mernissi sees modernity
as a challenge to
traditional space
boundaries, she also sees
Islamic movements as a
defensive response to the
latter's assault on
space. She states that
Islam gives men by birth
'power' and that women
have different needs and
therefore must place
themselves "in
different power
fantasies." She sees
the Islamic revival as a
class conflict between
newly urbanized middle
class men
(fundamentalist) and
urban educated upper
class women (unveiled).
Like Leila Ahmed, Fatima
Mernissi sees an element
of reclaiming cultural
identity in the Islamic
movement. For the
fundamentalists, coming
to terms with some of the
ideas inherent in
modernization is
equivalent to a betrayal
of cultural identity. Her
class-background analysis
justifies her claim that
reaction to the
structural social
democratization of Muslim
society of which the mass
education of women has
been a mainstay feature.
What irks the
fundamentalist, according
to Mernissi, is that the
era of independence did
not create an all male
new class. The literature
influenced by marxism
also clearly places the
male/female relationship
into a confrontational
submissive/dominant cast.
Both
Mernissi and Saadawi have
borrowed from Marx in
their writings as Muslim
feminists. In her
discussion of women in
Islam, Saadawi points out
that although women's God
given rights were
emancipating, that Islam
like all monotheistic
religions, has been
influenced by patriarchal
and class societies which
were based on landowners
and slaves. Mernissi
argues that the present
system is based on the
enslavement of women to
the family and the
husband. Morocco's family
structure, according to
Mernissi, is beginning to
disintegrate with the
increase in individual
salaries and the
breakdown of corporate
family. Mernissi feels
that the Muslim system is
limiting to both men and
women despite appearances
that it privileges men.
The
articles and issues
considered in this
collection are by no
means meant to be
exhaustive but it is
hoped that these selected
articles will convince
any readers of the
important influence of
the paradigms and
assumptions of western
feminism have had on the
study of women in a
context which is quite
alien to those
assumptions and how such
applications, if not
distorting conclusions,
leave many questions
unanswered. This could be
because present scholars
are not equipped with the
most efficient conceptual
tools for the job or that
they are not asking the
most pertinent questions
for revealing their
subject.
Those
writers who participated
in the UNESCO project on
the state of social
science research on women
in the Arab world
(Rassam, Baffoun and
Kader) bring out
interesting questions the
literature has not
addressed and suggests
possible directions for
the future. For example,
why is it that despite
government sponsored
changes in the legal and
employment areas of
public life, do women in
Muslim countries continue
to have the lowest female
participation rates in
the work force world
wide? Does the increased
participation in the work
force increase autonomy
and 'emancipation' for
Arab women? Why is it
that the rare studies
looking at the attitudes
of urban lower and lower
middle class women as
well as bedouin and rural
women do not respond to
the emancipation
construct and do not
express a desire for
change? Who wants change
exactly? How can we know
what Arab women want, how
they feel about Islam in
their daily lives if we
do not allow them to
speak for themselves?
David Waines, in a review of
works on women in Islam,
suggest that the
influence of Orientalism
might be an ideology,
aside from feminism and
Marxism, affecting
studies on women in
Islam. Some studies also
contradict the general
consensus in Muslim
feminist literature
indicating that the
existing network of
social relationships
serves to protect and
sustain women's rights.
There have also been
suggestions that women
themselves constitute a
stabilizing force in the
continuity of tradition
and custom indicating
that existing conditions
allow them to pursue
their interests.
Amal
Rassam argues that the
focus of study of women
in Islam should shift
away from the individual
to the Arab family. It is
in the family where the
public and private
intersect as the basic
socio-economic unit of
the region. Waines
concludes that greater
attention needs to be
paid to the religious and
ethical belief systems of
the community
investigated, in order to
elucidate the content of
its ideal and the degree
to which it believes that
practice actually
conforms with or deviates
from that ideal. To
unravel the status and
role of women, we must
take into account the
multitude of informal
modes of influence for
women and better
understand their roles as
mothers, wives and
mothers-in-law. Because
of the decline of the
family in the West,
Muslim feminists have
perhaps underestimated
the role of women in Arab
society's most vital
institution. Rassam
suggests that Muslim
feminists might look
beyond the veil and try
to understand the
specific mechanisms, both
psychological and
material which allow the
family to function,
survive and prosper while
adapting to the demands
of modernization and
national development.
  
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