Women, intellectuals, and other challenges

Transcription

1 Chapter 16 Women, intellectuals, and other challenges On Farid Esack see his Qurʾān, Liberation and Pluralism: An Islamic Perspective on Interreligious Solidarity Against Oppression, Oxford, Oneworld, 1997; On Being a Muslim: Finding a Religious Path in the World Today, Oxford, Oneworld, 1999; Religio-Cultural Diversity: For What and With Whom? Muslim Reflections from a Post-Apartheid South Africa in the Throes of Globalization, in Abdul Aziz Said and Meena Sharify-Funk (eds), Cultural Diversity and Islam, Lanham, MD, University Press of America, 2003, pp For the reaction of men to the pressures of social change see Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad, Contemporary Islam and the Challenge of History, Albany, State University of New York Press, 1982, pp On the place of the family see the reflections of Susan E. Marshall, Paradoxes of Change: Culture Crisis, Islamic Revival, and the Reactivation of Patriarchy, Journal of Asian and African Studies, 19 (1984), For some reflections on the legal status of women see Fatima Mernissi, Beyond the Veil: Male Female Dynamics in Modern Muslim Society, revised edition, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1987, pp. xxii xxix. The status of older women may comprise a third category on top of those of the female child and the married woman, but it is far less problematic a group for the jurists in the way in which they have understood the legal requirements. Traditional patterns of women s religion On women s religious practices see Lois Beck, The Religious Lives of Muslim Women, in Jane I. Smith (ed.), Women in Contemporary Muslim Societies, Lewisburg, PA, Bucknell University Press, 1980, pp See also Fatima Mernissi, Women, Saints, and Sanctuaries, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 3 (1977), ; Robert A. Fernea and Elizabeth W. Fernea, Variation in Religious Observance among Islamic Women, in Nikki R. Keddie (ed.), Scholars, Saints, and Sufis: Muslim Religious Institutions in the Middle East since 1500, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1972, pp Among the many anthropological studies which examine the roles women play in Muslim

2 societies see the exemplary book of Janice Boddy, Wombs and Alien Spirits: Women, Men, and the Zār Cult in Northern Sudan, Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, Seclusion Mohammad Fadel, Two Women, One Man: Knowledge, Power, and Gender in Medieval Sunni Legal Thought, International Journal of Middle East Studies, 29 (1997), , points out that according to the jurist al-qarāfī (d. 1285), the discrimination against women in Islamic law, where such occurs, is there to discourage the role of women in legal situations where it would unnecessarily remove them from their seclusion (see p. 193). Further historical reflections on these issues are found in Eli Alshech, Out of Sight and Therefore Out of Mind: Early Sunnī Islamic Modesty Regulations and the Creation of Spheres of Privacy, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 66 (2007), The narratives of Alifa Rifaat are found in her book Distant View of a Minaret and Other Stories, Denys Johnson-Davies (trans.), London, Heinemann, Modern demands The discussion of complementarity in Maulana Muhammad Ali, The Religion of Islam: A Comprehensive Discussion of the Sources, Principles and Practices of Islam, Columbus, OH, Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaat Islam, 1990, reflects an Aḥmadī point of view (and thus the status of the author as a Muslim is suspect in many parts of the Islamic world). However, many Muslims would have no difficulty in agreeing with the sentiment expressed in the passage. The modernist stance of Muhammad Ali s writing indicates that the idea of the natural inclinations of men and women as dictating their roles in society is far more widespread than simply belonging to Islamist circles (in which it is the standard motif of the discussions). Whether it is possible to deny these natural differences (or to what extent one may do so) has plagued North American feminist thought; see Carol Tavris, The Mismeasure of Woman, New York, Simon and Schuster, 1992, who argues, for example, that studies show that men placed in the role of nurturer do just as well as women, and that women are as capable as men of acts of extreme violence. On the strong sense of women being women see the discussion in Deniz A. Kandiyoti, Emancipated but Unliberated? Reflections on the Turkish Case, Feminist Studies, 13

3 (1987), Some people, of course, may argue that a secure sense of gender identity is not necessarily a welcome end. Islamic answers On the answer to women s issues being found in religion see, for example, Saddeka Arebi, Gender Anthropology in the Middle East: The Politics of Muslim Women s Misrepresentation, The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, 8 (1991), For the ideas of Riffat Hassan see her Women in Islam and Christianity: A Comparison, in Hans Küng and Jürgen Moltmann (eds), Islam: A Challenge for Christianity, Concilium 1999/3, London, SCM Press, 1994, pp ; idem, An Islamic Perspective, in Jeanne Becher (ed.), Women, Religion and Sexuality: Studies on the Impact of Religious Teachings on Women, Philadelphia, PA, Trinity Press, 1991, pp ; idem, Equal Before Allah? Woman man Equality in the Islamic Tradition, Harvard Divinity Bulletin, 17, number 2 (January May 1987), 2 4; idem, On Human Rights and the Qurʾānic Perspective, in Human Rights in Religious Traditions, Arlene Swidler (ed.), New York, Pilgrim Press, 1982, pp , also published as Journal of Ecumenical Studies, 19 (1982), The use of the past Some contemporary feminist readings of the past try to avoid the re-mythologizing of history: for example, Saʿdiyya Shaikh, Knowledge, Women and Gender in the Ḥadīth: A Feminist Interpretation, Islam and Christian Muslim Relations, 15 (2004), , attempts a critical reading of ḥadīth material for its androcentricism and patriarchy while also proposing a counter-narrative that uncovers hidden traces of powerful female voices. For a discussion of the mis-interpreted Qurʾān see Jane I. Smith, Women in Islam: Equity, Equality, and the Search for the Natural Order, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 47 (1979), On ʿĀʾisha see D. A. Spellberg, Politics, Gender, and the Islamic Past. The Legacy of ʿAʾisha bint Abi Bakr, New York, Columbia University Press, For other views of the impact of the historical development of Islam on women see Leila Ahmed, Women and the Advent of Islam, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society,

4 11 (1986), , and her book, Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate, New Haven, CT, Yale University Press, Ḥijāb in the modern context Barbara Stowasser, The Ḥijāb: How a Curtain Became an Institution and a Cultural Symbol, in Asma Afsaruddin and A. H. Mathias Zahniser (eds), Humanism, Culture and Language in the Near East: Studies in Honor of Georg Krotkoff, Winona Lake, IN, Eisenbrauns, 1997, pp On the situation in France see John R. Bowen, Why the French don t like Headscarves: Islam, the State, and Public Space, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2007; Bronwyn Winter, Hijab & the Republic: Uncovering the French Headscarf Debate, Syracuse, Syracuse University Press, 2008; Joan Wallach Scott, Veiled Politics, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 54/13 (November 23, 2007), B For the argument that laws against wearing the veil strengthen fundamentalism see Sarah Eltantawi, A Complicated Question: To Wear the Hijab or Not, Counterpunch, Weekend Edition, February 14-16, 2004, Women in the Muslim umma For further on Nawāl al-saʿdāwī see Ramzi Salti, Paradise, Heaven, and Other Oppressive Spaces: A Critical Examination of the Life and Works of Nawal el-saadawi, Journal of Arabic Literature, 25 (1994), For some historical perspective on the role of women in economic and social restructuring see Yvonne Y. Haddad, Islam, Women and Revolution in Twentieth-Century Arab Thought, The Muslim World, 74 (1984), For a provocative look at women in Afghanistan and the rhetoric of the need to free them from oppression see Lila Abu-Lughod, Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections of Cultural Relativism and Its Others, American Anthropologist, 104 (2002),

5 The move outside Islam For more on the Aḥmadiyya see Antonio R. Gualtieri, Conscience and Coercion: Ahmadi Muslims and Orthodoxy in Pakistan, Montreal, Guernica, 1989; Yohanan Friedmann, Prophecy Continuous: Aspects of Ahmadi Religious Thought and Its Medieval Background, Berkeley, University of California Press, On Aḥmadiyya missionizing in the context of other modern Muslim groups see Marc Gaborieau, A Peaceful Jihād? South Asian Muslim Proselytism as seen by Ahmadiyya, Tablīgh Jamāʿat and Jamāʿat-I Islāmī, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, 33 (2007), On the Bahá í s in the context of modern Islam see Christopher Buck, Bahá u lláh as World Reformer, The Journal of Bahá í Studies, 3/4 (1991), 23 70; Juan R. I. Cole, Modernity & the Millennium: The Genesis of the Baha i Faith in the Nineteenth-Century Middle East, New York, Columbia University Press, 1998; Oliver Scharbrodt, Islam and the Bahaʾi Faith: A Comparative Study of Muhammad ʿAbduh and ʿAbdul-Baha ʿAbbas, London, Routledge, The role of Muslim intellectualism For the ideas of Edward Said see especially his Orientalism, New York, Pantheon Books, 1978; his Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World, New York, Pantheon Books, 1981, is also pivotal. For an introduction to Mohammed Arkoun s ideas see his Rethinking Islam: Common Questions, Uncommon Answers, Boulder, CO, Westview Press, 1994; note therein, p. 2, The great majority of Orientalists who specialize in the study of Islam remain indifferent to upheavals linked to the postmodern condition. It needs to be remarked that Arkoun s comments in the introduction to a translation of the Qurʾān, given the context of the publication of the essay, were likely written with an audience conceived to be people without the ability to read the Qurʾān in Arabic, i.e., non-muslims and Muslims without formal religious training. Arkoun s concept of the imaginaire, not really captured by the English imagination, is central to his thought. See his discussion in Mohammed Arkoun, Rethinking

6 Islam Today, Washington, DC, Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, Georgetown University, 1987, especially pp New voices in a Traditionalist framework Shabbir Akhtar s key work remains A Faith for All Seasons: Islam and Western Modernity, London, Bellew, 1990, although he has published other volumes especially devoted to the Qurʾān in recent years: The Quran and the Secular Mind: A Philosophy of Islam, London, Routledge, 2007; Islam as Political Religion: The Future of an Imperial Faith, London, Routledge, Malise Ruthven, A Satanic Affair: Salman Rushdie and the Rage of Islam, London, Chatto and Windus, 1990, p. 128, questioned Akhtar regarding the status of women as indicated in the Qurʾān: that a woman s testimony is worth half that of a man s. Akhtar said in response, this is a scandal of faith God decrees what He pleases. We have to accept it, that s the scandal of faith. God s commands sometimes seem impossible: but we are duty-bound to obey. One prominent voice in traditional circles today is Yūsuf al-qaraḍāwī; see Ana Belén Soage, Sheikh Yūsuf al-qaraḍāwī: A Moderate Voice from the Muslim World? Religion Compass, 4 (2010), ; al-qaraḍāwī s middle way illustrates what Shabbir Akhtar sees himself as reacting to. Putting matters in perspective On al-qaeda see Quintan Wiktorowicz and John Kaltner, Killing in the Name of Islam: al- Qaeda s Justification for September 11, Middle East Policy, 10/2 (2003), 76 92, an analysis based upon a statement issued April 24, 2002 with the title A Statement from Qaidat al- Jihad Regarding the Mandates of the Heroes and the Legalities of the Operations in New York and Washington. Also see Hans G. Kippenberg, Consider that It Is a Raid on the Path of God : The Spiritual Manual of the Attackers of 9/11, Numen, 52 (2005), For a perceptive analysis of the language used by al-qaeda see Mark Long, Ribat, al-qaʿida, and the Challenge for US Foreign Policy, Middle East Journal, 63 (2009), On the emergence of ideas of a single, pure Islam among those termed salafīs or jihādīs see Roel Meijer (ed.), Global Salafism: Islam s New Religious Movement, New York, Columbia University Press, Nelly Lahoud, The Jihadis Path to Self-Destruction, New York, Columbia University Press, 2010, particularly picks up on the ideological (and rhetorical)

7 connection between the activist groups and the historical Khawārij, as does Jeffrey T. Kenney, Muslim Rebels: Kharijites and the Politics of Extremism in Egypt, Oxford, Oxford University Press, Events in 2011 in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and Libya have demonstrated the impact of the rhetoric of democracy and the distribution of power against authoritarian regimes. For a perceptive theoretical analysis from before the events of 2011 see Thomas J. Butko, Revelation or Revolution: A Gramscian Approach to the Rise of Political Islam, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 31 (2004), For an immediate reaction to the 2011 uprisings see Olivier Roy, This is Not an Islamic Revolution, New Statesman, February 14, 2011, pp. 24-8, also available at On the notion of civil society see the essays in Amyn B. Sajoo (ed.), Civil Society in the Muslim World: Contemporary Perspectives, London, I. B. Taurus, On the digital umma, see Gary R. Bunt, imuslims: Rewiring the House of Islam, Chapel Hill, The University of North Carolina Press, Notions of human rights have become central to many discussions about modern Muslim society; see the reflections on this in Fred Halliday, Relativism and Universalism in Human Rights: the Case of the Islamic Middle East, Political Studies, 43 (1995), , and Ruud Peters, Islamic Law and Human Rights: A Contribution to an Ongoing Debate, Islam and Christian Muslim Relations, 10 (1999), Ann Elizabeth Mayer, Islam and Human Rights: Tradition and Politics, 4 th edition, Boulder CO, Westview Press, 2007, is the standard work on the subject.