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Male Truths, Female Consequences
Former president Jimmy Carter and other world leaders issued this statement: "The justification of discrimination against women and girls on grounds of religion or tradition, as if it were prescribed by a Higher Authority, is unacceptable." What's your reaction to these statements? Are 'male interpretations of religious texts' to blame for the 'deprivation of women's equal rights?'
Women's equality with men is long overdue. In particular, societies need to safeguard women's right to self-determination -- from personal moral choices about how to lead their lives, to familial decisions about marriage and children, to agency in educational, economic, political, social, medical, and religious spheres.
Some of this can be accomplished through legal channels, but much more of it will require fundamental shifts in attitudes away from patriarchal understandings of human nature that proclaim men have the right to determine the course of women's lives, and which delineate gender roles so rigidly as to remove all possibility of deviation from gender norms for both men and women.
We will also have to reject totalitarian political notions that lead to excessive interventions by states into the personal lives of their citizens, whether it be something as trivial as requiring or forbidding certain attire, or something as momentous as curtailing women's freedom of movement, their economic opportunities, and their political participation.
Patriarchal interpretations of religious texts -- whether by men or by women -- have been instrumental in supporting and creating cultural and traditional mores that circumscribe women's freedom and equality. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Muslim world, where religious patriarchy has intersected with social conservatism, political and theological totalitarianism, and reactionary resistance to political, economic and cultural colonialism to create devastating consequences for women's lives.
Lost in all the interpretation and history are the profoundly egalitarian ideals of the Qur'an such as we find in 49:13, ""O mankind! We have created you male and female, and made you into nations and tribes so that you might come to know one another. The most honorable among you in the sight of God is the most pious."
Or, even more aptly, 33:35 "For Muslim men and women,- for believing men and women, for devout men and women, for true men and women, for men and women who are patient and constant, for men and women who humble themselves, for men and women who give in Charity, for men and women who fast, for men and women who guard their chastity, and for men and women who engage much in Allah's praise,- for them has Allah prepared forgiveness and great reward,"
Or 4:32-33: 32: Hence, do not covet the bounties which God has bestowed more abundantly on some of you than on others. Men shall have a benefit from what they earn, and women shall have a benefit from what they earn. Ask, therefore, God [to give you] out of His bounty: behold, God has indeed full knowledge of everything. 33: And unto everyone have We appointed heirs to what he may leave behind: parents, and near kinsfolk, and those to whom you have pledged your troth give them, therefore, their share. Behold, God is indeed a witness unto everything.
It would be disingenuous, though, to pretend that the Qur'an does not have verses which do not uphold such egalitarian principles. Verses that prescribe differential inheritances for males and females of the same familial relationship, or that posit men as the financial supporters of women, or impose differential dress codes upon men and women. To be sure, each verse that depicts a patriarchal family structure is countered by two or three that describe men and women as equal partners, that describe familial decision making as a process of mutual consultation and such. But the fact remains that the Qur'an provides ample material for patriarchal arguments to hold weight with the religious community.
In my personal life, I see those verses, which come from the more legalistic and latter revelations, as recognition of the economics that ruled at the time of the Prophet's community in Medina. In fact, most of them appear to be intended to mitigate the most egregious of the abuses of women at the time (for instance from having no inheritance rights at all, they were given mandated shares). They are rules that apply to that social and economic milieu, while the egalitarian verses map out the ideals for that society to aim for, a road map to a future in which men and women live in equality.
Others, see them as a blueprint for all human societies in perpetuity.
Either way, many of the excesses of modern Muslim society cannot be justified by any verse in the Qur'an, but rely upon extrapolation, analogy, and patriarchal notions of public welfare.
That is why it is so important for religious authorities, especially male religious authorities to help turn back the tide of the excessive curtailment of women's rights and demand their right to full participation in every sphere of life. It is essential for them to emphasize the importance of overarching and fundamental values, many of which the more conservative parts of the Muslim world seem to have lost touch with.
By
Pamela K. Taylor
|
July 22, 2009; 8:29 AM ET
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Posted by: anjali2002 | July 26, 2009 2:04 AM
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Is CCNL a fictitious name for Ayan Hirsi Ali?
Posted by: zebra4 | July 25, 2009 11:46 AM
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Unfortunately, Ayaan Hirsi Ali's lying on her visa form makes all of her writing suspect. If she did not really have to flee from an arranged marriage, how much of the rest of her book is accurate and how much of it is made up for marketing and sales purposes?
I find Ayaan's analysis to be a bit simplistic as well. She lays the blame for all the ills of the Muslim world at the feet of Islam. Reality is far more complex, with many, many factors coming into play to create conditions which are terrible for women in certain Muslim countries. There are many visions of Islam; those practiced in Iran, Saudia and by the Taliban may claim to be most authentic, but if you compare their societies to that of the Prophet, it's pretty evident they aren't what they claim to be. Not to mention that one can debate for hours whether authenticity is contained in conforming to the letter of the Prophet's society or it's methodology. I believe the latter is more genuine than the former.
Posted by: momtotsan | July 22, 2009 10:08 PM
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The Reality of Women in the Islamic World-
Ayaan Hirsi Ali covers the contemporary Islamic/"Mohammedic" situation in her book, Infidel.
The summary of said book:
"Thus begins the extraordinary story of a woman born into a family of desert nomads, circumcised as a child, educated by radical imams in Kenya and Saudi Arabia, taught to believe that if she uncovered her hair, terrible tragedies would ensue.
It's a story that, with a few different twists, really could have led to a wretched life and a lonely death, as her grandmother warned. But instead, Hirsi Ali escaped -- and transformed herself into an internationally renowned spokeswoman for the rights of Muslim women."
Excerpts-
p. 47 paperback issue:
"Some of the Saudi women in our neighborhood were regularly beaten by their husbands. You could hear them at night. Their screams resounded across the courtyards. "No! Please! By Allah!"
p.68:
"The Pakistanis were Muslims but they too had castes. The Untouchable girls, both Indian and Pakistani were darker skin. The others would not play with them because they were untouchable. We thought that was funny because of course they were touchable: we touched them see? but also horrifying to think of yourself as untouchable, despicable to the human race."
p.309
"Between October 2004 and May 2005, eleven Muslim girls were killed by their families in just two regions (there are 20 regions in Holland). After that, people stopped telling me I was exaggerating."
p. 347
"The kind on thinking I saw in Saudi Arabia and among the Brotherhood of Kenya and Somalia, is incompatible with human rights and liberal values. It preserves the feudal mind-set based on tribal concepts of honor and shame. It rests on self-deception, hyprocricy, and double standards. It relies on the technologial advances of the West while pretending to ignore their origin in Western thinking. This mind-set makes the transition to modernity very painful for all who practice Islam".
And for those that are concerned about Hirsi Ali's visas: She was not honest on said visa forms because that was the only way she could escape the tyranny of male family members and the male Islamic Dutch terrorists. She explains this in her books.
Posted by: ccnl1 | July 22, 2009 5:27 PM
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With all due respect, Ms. Taylor's article did not mention Ayaan Hirsi Ali AT ALL. The article DOES however, address the issue of reclaiming and reasserting the GOD-GIVEN rights afforded to women that HUMAN BEINGS seem to have convoluted over the course of time; a subject, both of which, I also address here: http://www.naseeb.com/naseebvibes/prose-detail.php?aid=5683.