Muslim women and modern society

One reason for this is ignorance of Islam in general, and Qur'anic pronouncements in respect of women, in particular. There are two extremes among Muslim women: one, who accept Shari'ah pronouncements in respect of women totally and uncritically being totally unaware of circumstances in which the Muslim jurists made those pronoun-cements. Most of these women are either illiterate or educated in traditional Islamic sciences. Second category is of those women who are totally indifferent to religion and consider religion an impediment in realising women's rights.

Both these extremes do not help as far as average Muslim women are concerned who, ignorant or otherwise, take their religion seriously and also are struggling against traditional shari'ah pronouncements about women. These women are in overwhelming number and one has to help them realise their rights in the Muslim society. This can be done only through the medium of Islam and by re-examining the Shari'ah pronouncements in the light of Qur'an and its normative verses.

There is enough in the Qur'an favouring rights of women but these Qur'anic pronouncements have so far been ignored or interpreted in ways loaded against women. It is, therefore, necessary to critically examine the Shariah pronouncements in respect of women in the light of Qur'an as understood by modern Muslim women in a democratic set up. We should bear in mind that cultural mediation affects our understanding of scripture.

Thus two things are important in this respect: reading the Qur'an from women's perspective and secondly from democratic cultural perspective since medieval cultural perspective has seriously affected our understanding of the Qur'an. It is heartening that some Muslim women are making serious attempt in this direction. Some of them are organising seminars and discussions and re-reading the Qur'an from women's perspective and are invoking the doctrine of Ijtihad which is dynamic principle of Islam. Ijtihad has been sanctioned by no less a person than the Prophet (PBUH) himself. Thus Ijtihad is integral part of Islam and has played a very important role in the entire history of Islam. The corpus of Shari'ah laws would not exist but for Ijtihad. It is unfortunate that after 11th century A.D. the 'ulama began to frown upon Ijtihad for various reasons.

I have before me a compilation called For Ourselves -- Women Reading the Qur'an. This is an important compilation by Women Living Under Muslim Laws. This is a serious attempt by believing Muslim women from various Muslim and non-Muslim countries to re-read the Qur'an and re-interpret it. It is also important to note that there are different translators of the Qur'an and translation, howsoever honest and liberal, does tend to be interpretation and translator's ideological dispensation sneaks in. For example, a presenter in the seminar points out, "Among translators there is a range from ultra-conservative to ultra-liberal, and Abdullah Yusuf Ali is a liberal translator." There are translators whose translations almost indicate as if women are secondary to men. The word qawwam in the verse 4:34 has been translated in a number of ways as ruler, manager, protector, supporter, in charge etc. you find 30 different translations.

In this key verse men have been described as qawwamun by the Qur'an and conservative translators translate as "men are rulers over women" and prove the superiority of men over women. However, liberal translators do not accept this translation and translate it as 'in-charge', or 'protectors' or 'managers' and so on. But even this carries a sense of superiority and others have translated it as those who run around to earn and nothing more. This reduces the degree of superiority and also they add that being qawwam is a function, not any biological superiority or inferiority and a woman can also be qawwam, if she earns and many women earn today in modern society and hence she also becomes qawwam.

Thus the Qur'anic text per se cannot be decisive but how it is understood by the jurist or theologian, is equally important and as pointed out before, cultural mediation plays an important role. The Qur'anic text cannot be understood in the same way today as it was understood centuries ago in feudal cultural ethos. Thus one great impediment in bringing about change even today is absence of democratic ethos in Muslim world. The women still continue to play subordinate role in these countries as in authoritarian societies the jurists and theologians too tend to be authoritarian and totally lack democratic perspective.

Thus a great struggle is going on in the Muslim countries for rights of women. More and more women are getting educated and becoming aware of their rights, Islamic or otherwise, and demanding changes in law. Something will definitely emerge from this great churning. Women scholars like Fatima Merssini from Morocco, having both Islamic and modern secular education have also shown the way. She has pointed out in her work The Veil and The Male Elite how to understand Qur'an and Hadith literature. She has critically examined the Hadith literature which is one of the main sources of Shari'ah formulations.

It is of course, not easy to challenge traditional sources of Islamic jurisprudence. It would require not only great Islamic scholarship but also sustained efforts in that direction. After all we have inherited a rich corpus of laws which have been integral part of Islamic practices for centuries. They carry weight of great learned 'ulama behind them. It is so difficult to disregard this juristic heritage.

But one need not despair. Much greater changes have taken place in the world in last two centuries. Until yesterday it was unthinkable that a Muslim woman can step out of four walls of her house and be active earning member of the family. But today it is an accepted practice even in countries like Saudi Arabia though with lot of restrictions. In other Muslim countries she can move freely, go out and earn and also hold important public positions. When Benazir Bhutto took over as Prime Minister of Pakistan many conservative 'ulama' objected quoting a hadith that if a woman becomes head of the state it would be a disaster for the country. Fatima Merssini effectively demolishes authenticity of this hadith in her scholarly work and the Muslim world also ultimately accepted women premiers in Pakistan and Bangladesh. In Bangladesh two women have been alternating as Prime Minister for last several years.

Despite the fact that there have been women Prime Ministers in Bangladesh and Pakistan it does not mean that women in these two countries are not suffering. Quite to the contrary, the Pakistani and Bangladeshi societies are very complex in structure and Muslim women are suffering a great deal. In North West Frontier Province tribal customs and traditions are going very strong and honour killings are quite common. Women enjoy very inferior status in tribal areas. In Sindh too, there are practices like karo kari (local Sindhi term for honour killing) and marriage with the Qur'an. The later practice is meant to prevent women from marrying outside family and thus keep the land within the family itself since a Muslim woman can inherit land also as per Islamic law of inheritance.

The mechanical interpretation of hudud laws (punishments for crimes like murder, theft and rape or adultery etc.) in respect of adultery and rape normally goes against women especially when she becomes pregnant or she goes to lodge complaint against man who raped her. This is taken as self-confession of illegitimate sexual intercourse and is arrested and jailed or even sentenced to death by stoning as it was the case of Amina Lawal in Nigeria.

The hudud laws also need to be properly interpreted in the light of the Qur'anic pronouncements and translators like Maulana Muhammad Ali, Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Muhammad Asad and others have tried to do that. Stoning to death is certainly not a Qur'anic punishment as there is no such verse in the Qur'an but is based on hadith literature and it is necessary to critically examine the entire hadith literature. Even Imam Bukhari whose collection of hadith is considered most authentic had rejected thousands of ahadith while collecting them. Some of the ahadith that he accepted as authentic also are problematic and should be re-examined, in the light of the Qur'an.

We have to re-codify the Shari'ah laws pertaining to women on the basis of the liberal, modern interpretation of the Qur'an and some ahadith which are in conformity with the Qur'anic spirit. Such an approach, it is hoped, will be an instrument of struggle for women's' rights for believing Muslim women. This requires a great deal of research in authentic Islamic sources. This would need great Islamic scholarship on the part of Muslim women activists in various countries, especially Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia and some Arab countries like Egypt, Jordan etc. They may have to face opposition from conservative Ulama but there is no other way.

I think this is the only way in the given situation. Rejecting religion altogether is not the way out nor total submission to what exists. A new way will have to be carved out by women themselves.

Asghar Ali Engineer is founder of Centre for Study of Society and Secularism, Mumbai.