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of Muslim Women: A Barometer of Progress Anisa Abd el Fattah Throughout the history of Islam it seems
that the question of women’s position and the proper social intercourse
between men and women has been an issue, along with the rights of women
and their roles in Muslim society. There are numerous ayaat of the
Qur’an that deal with this issue and also many ahâdîth, indicating
that before Islam, the Arab culture was insufficient in its perspective on
these subjects. No great amount of time need be dedicated to prove that,
since we all know that before Islam, the girl-children of Arabs were
sometimes buried alive simply because they were female. There are, of
course, many other examples, for instance the many forms of marriage that
existed in pre-Islamic Arabia, all of which served to reduce women to mere
bearers and carriers of offspring, having no rights, not even to the
exclusive love and devotion, in some instances, of a single husband,
having instead to accommodate several men if she hoped to meet her needs
for sustenance. When Islam came, it civilized the Arab tribes, and as it
spread, its civilizing qualities spread with it; and as Islam has
declined, so has the status of women in Muslim societies. Though non-Muslims in the West have seized
the rhetorical high ground, charging Islam with holding degrading ideas
about women and fostering the ill-treatment of women, it is a fact that
Islam is the only religious doctrine to deny the concept of woman as evil
seductress, responsible for the original sin and fall of mankind. It was
Islam that granted women rights of inheritance, the right to choice in
marriage, and the right to full discretion in the disposal of her personal
assets. It was Islam that first addressed the sexuality of the human being
as a matter of dignity and not evil, assuring us that Allah rewards the
conduct of human sexuality when conducted within the purifying bounds of
divine law, and prohibited celibacy and the avoidance of women as an act
of worship outside of the divine precepts that guide ritual worship. These
principles apply to both men and women. It was Islam that denied the idea that
women in menses are "unclean" and defiled, or a source of bad
luck, making it clear that although the products of menses were unclean,
the woman herself is not polluted. Indeed it was Islam, before all of the
modern world’s initiatives on behalf of women, most notably the program
of the radical feminists of the United Nations (who are leading the charge
for female superiority in revenge for the many injustices against women
resulting from the teachings of the orthodox Christian and Jewish faiths
and the paganism that has coexisted with them), that raised women’s
status in society, Allah saying that the best of human beings are those
who are most righteous, whether they be male or female. The reasons for the diminishing status of
women over several centuries are not clear. Many theories have been put
forward to explain this phenomenon, but none address the revival of
pre-Islamic ignorance that has come to prevail over the pure teachings of
the Qur’an and Sunnah and that have caused Muslim woman to be excluded
from the mainstream of society, her voice silenced and her inalienable
rights ignored. The results manifest as poverty among women, abuse of
women through unfair and un-Islamic laws and customs; emotional,
spiritual, and material neglect of children, along with the refusal to
educate women and enforcing strict codes of conduct on women that are not
also attached to men. All this creates unbalanced, unjust and extreme
interpretations of honor and chastity that are sometimes brutally enforced
on women, but completely ignored when it comes to men, giving the
erroneous impression that only women are bound by law to chastity and
morality, while men can (and do) indulge in immorality to the extent that
norms have been established in Muslim societies that suggest that such
immorality is somehow being "manly," or a part of the male
fitrah (nature). Even though we know, in theory, that the nature of a
human being, our fitrah, is pure, whether male or female, we have somehow
accepted that men are inclined toward immorality, so we should be tolerant
of their sins, despite knowing from the teachings of Islam that immorality
can and has brought entire civilizations to their knees. The corruptions that we have embraced are
from the pre-Islamic ignorance of Arabia, coupled with the ignorance that
previously prevailed in countries that subsequently accepted Islam, but
fell again into ignorance and paganism, and from the decadent immorality
and disregard for Allah that comes from the secular, liberal influence of
the West. These concepts and traditions are passed on and inherited by
generations as "culture" derived from religion. Today the Muslim Ummah is faced with the
challenge of restoring a pure, just Islam and re-establishing its laws and
precepts in Muslim lands, by as law, and eliminating the influences that
caused our societies to decline, and the status of Muslim women to decay.
For years Islam has been charged with the injustices that have been
suffered by Muslim women, yet the truth is becoming increasingly apparent:
these injustices have resulted from the imposition of colonialist laws,
and from the inadequacies and deficiencies of other faiths and cultures. With some effort we are able to trace the
decline in status of Muslim women from the time of the Prophet (saw) until
now. In modern times, the fall of the Ottoman Empire perhaps initiated the
most obvious decline in this status. The final obliteration of the last
remnant of Islamic authority left each new "Muslim" nation-state
to develop its own body of law, devoid of Shari’ah and mimicking the
social and legal systems of the colonialist powers. For the most part
these laws were secular, and the rulers established over the new Muslim
nation-states were also essentially secular and godless, giving their
allegiances to the colonial powers in exchange for position and power. If
we attribute the low status of women in modern Muslim societies to this
obvious and significant development, we may be on the brink of a cure, at
least in principle. Reversing the historic decline of Islamic
authority in the Muslim world is a challenge for every Muslim, yet before
we can accomplish this feat we must develop Islamic political and social
ideals that address the myriad of contemporary social, political and
economic challenges that face not only Muslims but the world. We must
include in these programs and ideals significant roles for women in
society, once again allowing Muslim women to take their place as the
natural mates and companions of men in the establishment of Islam and the
perpetuation of the Islamic order of life. The common quality of those women who are declared the "best women" by Allah is their extreme struggle and sacrifice for the establishment of truth over falsehood, and for the liberation of all mankind from the chains of ignorance and sin. The doors must be reopened to allow women the opportunity to fulfill these roles, and the purifying quality of struggle must again become a central theme of our efforts. We must forsake the appeal of materialism and power, exchanging these temptations for activism motivated by the fear of Allah and a love of His creation that guides us; men and women, to great sacrifices. As secularism reaches the apex of its power, seeking to employ the women of the world as its agents in schemes designed to eliminate morality as a barrier to its dominion, Muslim women must be given the opportunity and freedom to join in the struggle and work alongside our men to restore the primacy of Islam in the world. About the Author: With permission from the author: |