1. Feminism and the Qu’ran
Exegesis of the Qu’ran implies that gender inequality in Muslim countries
could be due to political factors rather than essential principles of Islam.
By Emily Keach
Staff Writer
MANY AMERICANS ASSUME that
Islam is bad for women. Perhaps be-
cause Muslim women have to wear a
veil — which is seen as a sign of Mus-
lim men’s domination and oppression
of women. Some would point to the
fact that Egyptian criminal law does
not punish men for beating their wives
if they have “good intentions.” Or the
fact that 55 percent of Yemeni women
are illiterate. Or to countless stories
from Saudi Arabia, such as the gang-
rape survivor who was imprisoned
for getting in a car with an unrelated
male, or the woman who was caught
driving and sentenced to 10 lashes, re-
quiring a royal pardon. Or Saudi laws
forbidding women to vote, let alone
not even score the worst in Thomas
Reuters Foundation’s survey of the
worst Arab country to live as a wom-
an. This ranking went to Egypt, where
female genital mutilation is common-
place. According to the World Econom-
ic Forum’s Yearly Global Gender Gap
Report for 2013, the Middle East re-
gion earned the lowest ranking.
In short, there are reasons to believe
Islam oppresses women. My challenge
to the reader then, is to understand
that this gender inequality is indic-
ative of Arab countries’ political and
cultural climate, rather than inherent
to the Qur’an or Hadith.
The Qur’an, like the Bible, requires
sensitivity to interpret accurately. A
case can be made that the Qur’an as-
cribes equality to men and women
based on the creation of humankind. In
a middle surah, or chapter (later surah
in the Qur’an are more authoritative
than chronologically earlier ones), it is
written, “He [Allah] created you from
a single person: then created, of like
nature, his mate” (39:6). Based on this
and thematically similar verses, schol-
ar Mohammad Ali Syed argues that the
Qur’an and the Hadith, allot essential
equality to men and women. While this
is encouraging, verses such as “If you
fear high-handedness from your wives,
remind them [of the teachings of God],
then ignore them when you go to bed,
then hit them” (4:34) seem to decimate
the possibility of Qur’an-sanctioned
gender equality.
After dropping that bomb of a verse,
please resist the urge to regress to the
monolithic answer that yes, Islam is
bad for women. Be assured that “there
are Muslim leaders who contest sex-
ism and resist the masculinist bias of
inherited traditions,” insists professor
of Islamic and gender studies, Sa’diyya
Shaikh, of the University of Cape Town.
In “The Veil and the Male Elite,” Fati-
ma Mernissi revisits hadith methodol-
ogy and makes a convincing case that
Islam’s misogynistic traditions are the
product of a particular narrator and
historical exegesis — and not essential
to Islamic belief. The implications of
Islam’s “proof texts” against women’s
rights are not self-evident.
Before passing judgment on what
we believe to be oppressive laws, we
need to understand the diversity of
Muslim women’s perspectives on
wearing a hijab. Though West-
erners likely perceive the hijab
as an external sign of oppres-
sion imposed by males, many
Islamic feminists refute
this. The hijab, according
to Shaikh, has been used
as a “symbol of resis-
-
nitions,” for example,
during the Iranian
Revolution in 1979.
Mernessi also de-
mands Western
culture examine
its own double
standard regard-
ing women’s ap-
pearances. She
argues that
we must rec-
ognize how our
aesthetic pref-
erences, which
often laud the
size four, also
manipulates
women. “The
objective remains
identical in both
cultures: to make
women feel un-
welcome, in-
adequate,
ugly.”
So, is Islam bad for women? As of
now, the way it is used to support politi-
cal regimes in Arab countries, can often
be destructive of women to various de-
grees. As Egyptian-American journalist
Mona Eltahawy urges, “Resist cultural
relativism and know that even in coun-
tries undergoing revolutions and upris-
ings, women will remain the cheapest
bargaining chips.” We must remember
that these unspeakable violations of
women’s rights are not necessarily es-
sential to Islam. This is the hope we
have—that rigorous exegesis of the
Qur’an will remove the pos-
sibility of justifying gen-
der-based violence
and discrimina-
tion against Mus-
lim women.
A
Graphic by Hannah Yost