Inside the Gender Jihad: Women's Reform in Islam (21 page)

The other prong of Islamic orthodoxy as
din
is orthopraxis, or right actions. At countless places in the Qur’an, faith or belief and actions,
iman
and
amal
, are linked. Indeed right ideas are not sufficient in and of themselves. Faith depends upon some demonstrated action or orthopraxis. Historically, orthopraxis was the arena of Islamic
shari‘ah
with the task of articulating right actions into positive juridical terms.

Shari‘ah
divides actions into two categories:
‘ibadat
(formal rituals), and

mu‘amalat
(social or human relations). I limit this present discussion about
‘ibadah
with the presumption that it is fundamental even to the most controversial amongst us.
7
Suffice it to say that
‘ibadah
is equivalent to the

five pillars
:
shahadah
(witness to affirm faith);
salah
(formal worship)
; zakah
(alms-giving)
; hajj
(pilgrimage)
;
and
sawm
(fasting)
–Ramadan
. These five rituals are formal, stylized, and not self-encoded actions. Like all such formalized liturgical practices they are determined to set parameters between the sacred and mundane.

From the perspective and goal of this chapter, however,
mu‘amalat
, social intercourse, mutual relations, or just relations, is the most significant category of action. The following
hadith
helps to describe just relations: “Verily, your Lord has certain rights over you, your people have certain rights over you, and your soul [or self] has certain rights over you. So give

each the rights that are due.”
8
This notion has three arenas of application.

One arena is relative to one’s own soul or self. In this respect we might point to proper food, water, shelter, and exercise for physical, intellectual, and spiritual well-being. The significance of right relations to oneself is obvious in terms of overall well-being, but right relations with self also affects one’s ability in terms of the arena of doing justice in relation to others and to Allah. The arena of right relations with Allah has significance that can never be truly fulfilled except within the context of just relations with self and others. Relations with Allah can be perceived as both the ultimate goal and the motivation for right actions.

My focus on just relations between self and others presumes a dynamic integration between the rights of self and Allah. Just relations are the individual and collective responsibility to fulfill one’s own rights equally with the rights of others. In fact, the
hadith
cited above uses the word
ahl
for people or family. It has been variously used in the Qur’an to apply to a small clan of people or family, as well as to designate a larger kinship group or tribe, to ultimately the whole of the world’s Muslim peoples. Given a radical understanding of the global village, I confer on this term an even greater meaning than any single or particular community and propose that

94 inside the gender jihad

the term
ahl
is associated with all “people,” with the human family. All are descendents of Adam and Eve, the primordial parents. All are due equal rights. In my reading, relations with other people form the most significant subtext of this
hadith
. As such the
mu‘amalat
category designates the social dimension of human activity and must be seen as the pinnacle of Islamic praxis and the primary objective of
shari‘ah
.

THEORY AND PRACTICAL GENDER REFORMS

Since the underlying ideas about nature, humankind, and Allah affect the ways people act, Muslims accept that ultimately only Allah can judge actions. Yet our
din
calls us into action. We also evaluate actions on the basis of their results. In the context of evaluating Islam and gender for the sake of reform, we can ask this simple question: how are women treated by individual men and by Muslim patriarchy as a whole? If answers to this question show grave inequalities between the humanity of women and men then reform is not only warranted, but justified.

The first theoretical concern is to determine the underlying ideas that cause this inequality. That is, are women in an inferior position in Muslim society because of Islam itself? Again, determining what is or is not Islam is the basis of answering this question and for the sake of this chapter I will stress the partnership between the primary sources: Qur’an and
sunnah
and the primary agent (
khalifah
) and servant (
‘abd
) of all Allah’s creatures with moral competency – humankind. Muslims continually claim to articulate an Islamic position with reference to the sources. Yet the variety of conclu- sions drawn from these sources leads to an important realization. Even though Muslim scholars and laity are analyzing the same resources, the resulting diverse conclusions indicate that there are key elements in the interpretive process that lends itself to particular results. Since a single source can and does lead to diverse conclusions then the hermeneutics of the very act of interpretation is emphasized.

In hermeneutics, the analytical focus shifts from the source materials to the interpreters of that material. More precisely, how does anyone come to render an understanding of anything, especially something communicated through human language? Language or abstract reasoning through a symbol system has the distinct characteristic of variant meanings and multiple understandings. What causes these variant meanings is both the language itself and the reader or the listener. Thus we must consider in some detail what the process of comprehension within human beings is.

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That process cannot be taken for granted. The most basic aspect of that process is that people understand and use language on the basis of their contextual experiences and the potential of their imagination beyond those experiences.

Primary to theories on gender is the proposition that men and women experience the world differently, whether for reasons of biology and nature, or through experience and culture. As one subgroup of the human species, women may have experiences that are distinct from those of men, the other subgroup, and vice-versa. Yet, the record of Islam’s historical intellectual development reveals one thing very clearly. With the exception of
hadith
transmission and Qur’anic
hifz
(memorization), women did not participate in the formation of Islam’s paradigmatic foundations. Put another way, not only did men, men’s experiences of the world – including their experiences with women – and men’s ideas and imagination determine how Islam is defined for themselves, they also defined Islam for women. Men have proposed what it means to be Muslim on the presumption that the male experience is normative, essential, and universal to all humankind.

:

When we examine these presumptions, the tendency of patriarchy abounds. I take patriarchy as a term discussed by Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza in
Bread Not Stone
:

I use
patriarchy
as a heuristic category. I do not use the concept in the loose sense of “all men dominating all women equally,” but in the classical Aristotelian sense.
Patriarchy
as a male pyramid of graded sub- ordinations and exploitations specifies women’s oppressions in terms of the class, race, country, or religion of the men to whom we “belong.”
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For I do not limit patriarchy to merely an affirmation of men and men’s experiences but also extend it toward a hegemonic presumption of dominance and superiority. That includes both the presumption of male as normative human and the tendency to extend humanity to women only in functional juxtaposition to that norm. For example, the patriarchal formu-

lations

of Islamic law throughout history hold condescending utilitarian

perspectives on women. Not only is the female looked down upon, she is treated as an object in
shari‘ah
discussions, not as a discussant. The woman

is a recipient of its

decisions,

not a decision maker. Decisions made

concerning her role in the family and society were

made

from the

perspective of those who did not and could not share her experience and therefore judged on the basis of second-hand perceptions. What is more, women are subject to double standards and exclusions in matters of state

96 inside the gender jihad

policy, education, employment, and economics. This is the one constant in all of the history of Islamic thought that seems the most difficult to extract in order for genuine female-inclusive reforms.

The results of the double standards between women and men are apparent when levels of human development are measured. From matters such as educational level, public health, mortality rates, representation in the political process, and others, the United Nations development statistics indicate that women’s status in Muslim countries remains far below the status of Muslim men. Is this the natural order? Is this a reflection of the divine decree? In short, are there any indications in the primary sources of Islam, the Qur’an and the
sunnah
, that women’s humanity should be so oppressed? The basic theory underlying Islamic gender reform movements is justice founded upon the ideal that
Islam does not oppress women
. The next goal of theoretical development is to look into both the primary sources of Islamic thought and the vast intellectual discourse throughout history for verification or proof of that theory. If the theory is incorrect, then definitive evidence must be provided. No one – not even the staunchest conservative patriarch – proposes that Islam oppresses women. The overwhelming consensus of Muslim scholars and believers is that the primary sources of Islam extol the virtues of humankind on the basis of
taqwa
, the moral capacity toward orthodoxy and orthopraxis (49:13).
Taqwa
has never been discussed relative to gender stratification.

Although the revelation to the Prophet Muhammad and his normative behavior are accepted as the divinely inspired sources foundational to all of Islam, actual contexts, human perspectives, and experiences affect both the formulas of the sources and their interpretations. Furthermore, even when interpretations are rendered, there still remains the important issue of application and implementation. How are ideas and theories concluded from the Qur’an and the
sunnah
best implemented in specific social contexts? Implementation reflects time, place, gender, level of knowledge, resources, and circumstances of history and culture. The process of establishing gender justice in Muslim society is neither simple nor straight- forward. There is not one strategy, one method, or one process. What works today may be unsuccessful tomorrow. What might work in one cultural circumstance may vary from what works in another culture. The necessity for continued efforts to achieve gender justice, however, is premised upon the fundamental theory that Islam is just for women, and that Allah intends full human dignity for women.

Although there are no detailed goals in theory, it has ultimate principles,

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like justice for Muslim women. On the other hand, activism must have clearly defined goals and expectations that are attainable in the course of some process. Discussions about basic understandings of Islam as a matter of theory are often hidden from the arena of praxis or actions in the context of Islamic reform. Perhaps this is because of their complexity and irreconcil- ability. However, in other ways, these underlying or hidden ideas are exactly what shapes or determines what actions need to be taken, as well as why they are effective or ineffective in particular circumstances. For this reason, I am once again inclined to stress that knowledge of the underlying ideas is import- ant to the actions themselves and to the efficacy of the actions. Haphazard ac- tions can only produce haphazard results. Although reform movements benefit from all kinds of efforts
–
no matter how poorly articulated or unarticulated

–
the goal of recognizing and operating in various social systems that women are full human beings cannot be reached and maintained without knowledge of the perspectives that underlie and thereby affect actual practices.

Ultimately, women and men who are interested in the future devel- opment of Islam as a system of social justice must act in accordance with that interest and remove authority from those who seek to prevent the manifestation of Islam as a system intended for the fullest realization of human potential. While not predetermining a selected set of actions, this perspective provides the underlying theory to verify the need to act. Actions are seen as a necessary extension of faith. This perspective is clearly borne out in Muslim women’s collectives and organizations.

MUSLIM WOMEN’S ACTIVIST NETWORKS AND ORGANIZATIONS

Non-government and non-profit organizations are run as special-interest groups of civil society. In the past few decades, Western agencies under the umbrella of global development have discovered the benefit of these organ- izations in the context of the Third World and have supplied them with impressive philanthropic funding and other material support. This support mainly benefits global development agendas and helps to create more democratic governments. Another benefit of Muslim women’s collectives or

N.G.O.s

is their contribution toward more gender mainstreaming,

especially in their processes likely to directly help the poor and those at the grassroots. International funders have preferred to support these organiza- tions rather than disperse funds to the bureaucrats and administrators in some context of the nation-state because the totalitarian bureaucrats and

98 inside the gender jihad

their cronies may maneuver actions that limit certain civil liberties.

This financial support is without a doubt indispensable to establishing and sustaining the institutions or organizations created or run by the special- interest groups in the context of Third World women and other dis- empowered groups. They focus their research, activities, and strategies of reform on issues of concern to women and the community as a local or regional collective. At one level, N.G.O.s, although working within the legal context of a particular nation-state, are free from partisan obligations. That can bring greater autonomy to their involvement in local concerns over the force of political agendas, which might forfeit the basic moral motivation and qualities of their efforts to become accepted, acknowledged, and ultimately referred to with authority. Still there are often subtle restric- tions placed on their agenda and focus areas when the results must fulfill the expectations, support, or agendas of the funders.