WUNRN
Dr. Prof. Valentina Colombo,
Academic Researcher on Arab Women's Role in Democratization
Processes in the Middle East - European University of Rome
WOMEN AND ISLAM: RELIGION, TRADITION
OR SIMPLY HUMAN RIGHTS?
Geneva, United Nations, Panel, March 12, 2010
By Valentina Colombo
“Women – religion or belief – human
rights”. When referring to the Islamic world we should change it into “Women –
Islam or tradition – human rights”. As a matter of fact in the Arab-Islamic
world it is sometimes hard to separate religion and tradition when talking
about women. What is a clear derivation
from Koranic teachings and what is a simple traditional custom? When it comes
to FGM, honor killings, wife beating and other matters regarding female
discrimination is it a matter of religion, of tradition, of tradition justified
through a wrong interpretation of religion or what else?
At the beginning of the 20th
century, a modernizing Tunisian Islamic reformer, Tahar Haddad called for
freeing women from all of their traditional bonds. In a book entitled Our Women in the Shari 'a and Society,
published in 1930, he advocated formal education for women and maintained that
over many years Islam had been distorted and misinterpreted to such an extent
that women no longer were "aware of their duties in life and the
legitimate advantages they could expect."
In the name of Islam, Tahar Haddad
denounced such abuses against women as "repudiation," whereby a
husband could divorce his wife without grounds or explanation, sending her back
to her family or leaving her for another wife. Refuting assertions that such conduct
is permissible for Muslims, he declared:
"Islam is innocent of the oft-made accusations that it is an
obstacle in the way of progress. Rather it is the religion of progress par
excellence, an endless source of progress. Our decadence is the consequence of
the chimera with which we have filled our minds and the scandalous, paralyzing
customs within which we have locked ourselves."
Following Haddad’s ideas in 1956
Tunisia issued the Code of the Personal Status which clearly and strictly
banned polygamy and established that a woman could ask for a divorce. The
question today is: if Tunisia, though declaring its secularity, is an Islamic
country, why most of the Islamic countries do not have a Code of the Personal
Status like the Tunisian one which is safeguarding women’s rights? The answer
is only one: because Islam is not a monolythe and has no central authority.
As a matter of fact when talking
about Islam we should always ask: which one? In theory we could have as many
islams as many Muslims in the world? This is so true that we can have on one
end a country like the just mentioned Tunisia and on the other end countries
like Saudi Arabia, whose constitution is the Koran, and has turned into law the
strictest interpretation of Koran and do not consider women as “persons” yet,
and another country like Bahrein where women are still fighting to get a Code
of the personal status.
In between we have a good example of
a modern interpretation of Koranic family rules in the reform of the Moroccan
Mudawana in 2004, that at the same time shows the limits imposed by religious
bonds. King Mohammed VI, whose family descends from the family of Muhammad,
presented the new Family Code in 2003 as being in complete harmony with both
the Islamic principles and the modern age, stating that “it is necessary to be
mindful of the tolerant aims of Islam, which advocate human dignity, equality
and harmonious relations, and also to rely on the cohesiveness of the Malekite
school of law and on ijtihad, human reasoning, thanks to which Islam is a
suitable religion for all times and places. The aim is to draw up a modern
Family Law which is consistent with the spirit of our glorious religion.”
Furthermore, Mohammed VI asserted that “in my capacity as Commander of the
Faithful, I cannot make licit what God has forbidden, nor forbid what he has
made lawful.” Therefore, polygamy and inheritance laws in the new Law followed
the more literal line of the Koran, thus becoming potential stumbling blocks
for the approval of an otherwise applauding, outside world. However, as the
King asserted, polygamy was almost impossible from an Islamic legal point of
view, as a man has to prove to a judge that he will be able to treat all wives
equally. Moreover, in cases where polygamous marriage is allowed by the Family
Law the first wife now has the right to divorce her husband. The new Family Law
makes significant amendments to almost all stipulations of the old Personal
Status Code, however it excludes those matters pertaining to inheritance and
polygamy, which are issues subject to the strict following of Koranic rules.
Those most important changes, however, were: the minimal marital age for women
was raised from fifteen to eighteen years and was hence made equal with the
legal requirement for men. Women are entitled to decide on their own regarding
the guardian and cannot be married without their consent. Furthermore,
unilateral repudiation is forbidden and both wife and husband have to appear in
front of a judge in order to get divorced. Where cases of divorces are
concerned, the new law stipulates that women receive custody over the children
and the father is obliged to pay child support. The main importance and
challenge of the new Mudawana is that “a modern wording instead of that which
undermines the dignity of women as human beings” has been adopted. To sum up,
the new law is, as the King declared, not to be considered “as a legislation
devised for women only, but rather as a code for the family, father, mother and
children. The proposed legislation is meant to free women from the injustices
they endure, to protecting children’s rights and safeguarding men’s dignity.”
Some problems still remain due to the widespread male chauvinistic culture, due
to the fact that most judges are men, but especially due to the fact that still
today many Moroccan women, living in villages, do not even know the existence
of a new Code.
Until recently religious texts have
been interpreted only by men, through men’s lenses. Inside the Islamic world a
new interesting trend is to be observed: the interpretation of Koran from a
gender perspective. One of the most important representatives of this trend is
Amina Wadud, professor of Islamic studies at the Virginia Commonwealth
University. She has become known to the world when on March 18th
2005 she guided as imam a Friday prayer for male and female believers. When she
began to work on things that were considered to be gender mainstream, or
gender-inclusive, the notion of Islamic feminism had not been discussed yet.
She wrote Qur'an and Woman. Rereading the
Sacred Text from a Woman’s Perspective (Oxford University Press, Oxford
1999) in the end of the 1990s. Many have considered the book as the beginning
of female-centred exegesis of the Koran, which is an important part of what we
now recognize analytically as Islamic feminism. Wadud in an interview
denounced: “Muslim women are not all interested in Islamic feminism. Some of
them are not even interested in being Muslim. For me, I have not had a problem
with Islam so much as I had a problem with the way in which Islam is practiced.
And that this kind of Islam can sometimes be aggressive against women's full
rights”.
In her books, Qur'an and Woman and Inside
the Gender Jihad: Women’s Reform in Islam (Oneworld Publications, 2006),
she has defended pluralism, the freedom of opinion and the right to be
different from an Islamic perspective. According to her writings, the
Koran should be re-read from a gender
perspective and in the light of its historical context. She thinks that unless
you have had a real connection with the Koran, you will not understand how it
is a force in history as well as in spirit. You will not be able to understand
that there is cooperation between the reader and the text. You will say that
there is some flaw with methodology. But you have to understand that the
readers can use the text for whatever they want, because there is a dynamic
relationship between the text and the interpretation. The text is both created
in time but also evolves beyond time.
Wadud, almost like Haddad, points
out that the global reform movement for a Muslim personal status law is to be
based on the egalitarian trajectory of the Koran. On her opinion, some people
who have grown up in a culture where the Koran is used for a narrow and
restrictive interpretation consider that their interpretation is the only
interpretation. And that is problematic since in all Islamic countries in which
the sharia is a main source of law, women’s rights are hardly defended. Wadud’s
works, as many other texts by contemporary reformers of Islam, try to show that
the interpretation of religious traditions is never complete.
Another example of what Muslim women
are trying to do to make the Koranic text a basis to defend their rights is the
recent translation of the Koran into English by Laleh Bakhtiar, American of
Iranian origin. Bakhtiar, who is 68 and has a doctorate in educational
psychology, set out to translate the Koran simply because she found the
existing versions inaccessible by Westerners. But when she reached the problematic
verse 34 of sura IV reciting “But chide those for whose refractoriness you have
cause to fear; remove them into beds apart, and beat them " Bakhtiar spent months on the verb daraba that literally means “beat”. She
does not speak Arabic, but she learned to read the holy texts in Arabic while
studying and working as a translator in the Islamic Republic of Iran in the
1970s and '80s. When she looked up in Edward William Lane's Arabic-English
Lexicon, a 3,064-page volume from the 19th century, and among the six pages of
definitions for daraba she found that
one of the meanings was "to go
away" so she decided that that had to be the translation since she
believes the "beat" translation contradicts another verse, which
states that if a woman wants a divorce, she should not be mistreated.
Debates over translations of the
Koran - considered God's eternal words - revolve around religious tradition and
Arabic grammar. In English for instance you have six different translations of
the above mentioned verse. They are the following:
"Men are superior to women on
account of the qualities with which God has gifted the one above the other, and
on account of the outlay they make from their substance for them. Virtuous
women are obedient, careful, during the husband's absence, because God has of
them been careful. But chide those for whose refractoriness you have cause to
fear; remove them into beds apart, and scourge them: but if they are obedient
to you, then seek not occasion against them: verily, God is High, Great!"
(Rodwell's version of the Koran);
"Men have authority over women
because God has made the one superior to the other, and because they spend
their wealth to maintain them. Good women are obedient. They guard their unseen
parts because God has guarded them. As for those from whom you fear
disobedience, admonish them and send them to beds apart and beat them. Then if
they obey you, take no further action against them. Surely God is high,
supreme." (Dawood's version of the Koran)
"Men are in charge of women,
because Allah has made the one of them to excel the other, and because they
spend of their property (for the support of women). So good women are the
obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah has guarded. As for those from
whom you fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and
scourge them. Then if they obey you, seek not a way against them. Lo! Allah is
ever High Exalted, Great." (Pickthall's version of the Koran)
"Men are the managers of the
affairs of women for that God has preferred in bounty one of them over another,
and for that they have expended of their property. Righteous women are
therefore obedient, guarding the secret for God's guarding. And those you fear
may be rebellious admonish; banish them to their couches, and beat them. If
they then obey you, look not for any way against them; God is All high, All
great." (Arberry's version of the Koran)
"Men are the maintainers of
women because Allah has made some of them to excel others and because they
spend out of their property; the good women are therefore obedient, guarding
the unseen as Allah has guarded; and (as to) those on whose part you fear
desertion, admonish them, and leave them alone in their sleeping places and
beat them; then if they obey you, do not seek a way against them; surely Allah
is High, Great. (Shakir's version of the Koran);
"Men are the protectors and
maintainers of women, because Allah has given the one more (strength) than the
other, and because they support them from their means. Therefore the righteous
women are devoutly obedient, and guard in (the husband's) absence what Allah
would have them guard. As to those women on whom part you fear disloyalty and
ill conduct, admonish them (first), (next), refuse to share their beds, (and
last) beat them (lightly); but if they return to obedience, seek not against
them means (of annoyance) for Allah is Most High, Great (above you all). (Ali's
version of the Koran).
It is patently clear that the lack
of an Islamic authority deciding which interpretation should be followed keeps
on being the main problem. So any Muslim can decide to follow either one
interpretation or the other. This is the reason why in 1997 a radical imam in
Spain and in 2004 a radical imam in France officially declared that a husband
has the right to beat his wife since this is stated in the Koran.
Following a slight different path is
Zaynab al-Suwaij, one of the founders of the American Islamic Congress of Iraqi
origin, and stresses that “Western scholars definitely have a different focus
than do scholars in the East, though, Islamic scholars look to women’s issues
in the Sharia and in tradition and how we deal with women.” In contrast, “in the West women’s rights and
concepts of universal rights, fall into
one pile when we are discussing women’s issues.” She is firmly convinced that
women in the Muslim world are becoming more and more integrated into the
political realm and that the era now seems to be one where women are seeking
rights without respect for how it affects Islam and culture. The key of her
reasoning, and I think she has really got the point, is that “Islam is adopted generally at a personal
level, but no one applies every facet of it to his life.” With al-Suwaiji’s words
we go back to the beginning and we have another witness that there is no Islam
with capital I, no official Islam but many islams and that women’s rights and
human rights cannot appease whatever religion since they are universal.
A confirmation of what al-Suwaij is
saying, that is the importance to integrate women in society without respect
for how it affects religion or tradition, comes from inside the Arab world, in
particular from Egypt. Tarek Heggy, one of the most important contemporary Arab
intellectuals, wrote in an article of his, “Women and Progress”, after the
appointment of the first female judge to Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court:
“A society that restricts important positions to men uses up only half its
potential in the way of intelligence, performance, productivity and education;
it is a society running on half steam. […]Women's organizations have worked and
continue to work tirelessly […] Yet they are required to do even more, to set
in place a comprehensive plan designed to put an end to the reactionary male
chauvinist culture dominating our society - in the family, in education, in
religious institutions and in the media. […] Any society that views women as
unequal to men contrives to find references and 'evidence' to support its
perception, although the attitude has no religious or legal basis, but is a
purely cultural phenomenon. It follows that the more developed a society's
educational/cultural environment, the less inclined its members are to
subscribe to the primitive belief that a person's worth is determined by gender.
In a developed society, people no longer need to ask a question that is
reactionary by its very nature, namely, are women equal to men? There are clear
examples that prove that the issue in its entirety is a cultural one. Despite
the existence of Koranic texts enjoining men to release a wife who no longer
wishes to continue the marital relationship, and prohibiting them from keeping
her against her will just to hurt her, the legal system has for many years
provided men with a legal device that allows them to do the exact opposite”.
Of the same opinion is Elham Manea,
Professor of political sciences at the University of Zurich of Yemeni origin.
In her book I shall not cut my tongue.
Islam, the West and Human rights (Ich
will nicht mehr schweigen. Der Islam, der Westen und die Menschenrechte, Herder,
Freiburg 2009) she points out that Islam
has to look for a humanistic reformation that will lead to promote human rights
as universal, not as Christian, Islamic or Jewish human rights. And no
exception should be allowed. Seyran Ates, German lawyer born in Turkey, in her
book The Multicultural Mistake. How we in
Germany could live better together (Der Multikulti-Irrtum. Wie wir in
Deutschland besser zusammenleben koennen, Ullstein, Berlin 2007) is even
stronger when she writes that “ we want that also Muslim women live, with or
without Islam, with self-determination and dignity and in freedom”.
To conclude if a human right can be defined the right to live in dignity, with freedom of conscience and equality before the law for all people regardless of their gender, race, color and creed, thus while discussing human and women’s rights countries should be asked to respect conventions like Cedaw with no exception and no reservation to preserve religious beliefs or texts, governments should ask the total respect of universal human rights before starting economical and political relations with any country. Only doing this the West will help civil society in the Islamic world in general, women in particular, to reach their basic rights so that there shall be no girls married to older men, like it happens in Yemen and Saudi Arabia, no women killed to have offended their family’s honor, no mothers without their children because they have been kidnapped by their father and many other forms of discriminations regarding citizenship, inheritance, divorce and violence. We should understand that “women are the solution” and that safeguarding their rights simply means safeguarding human rights and our future.
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