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STATUS OF WOMEN IN ISLAMIC CULTURE.
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History, doctrine, women's lowly position. Differences & cultural variations between Islamic countries.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
History, doctrine, women's lowly position. Differences & cultural variations between Islamic countries.
Paper Introduction:
This research examines the status of women in Islamic society. The status of women originated in the Koran and Mohammed's interpretation of it 1400 years ago. By the time of Mohammed's appearance, the cultural expression of Christianity had become ecclesial and institutional. The cultural expression of Islam on the other hand held that religion and everyday experience were intertwined. Islamic doctrine evolved toward what Campbell describes as the "ungainsayable consensus" and "the mystique authority from heaven" (Campbell 439). The consensus was articulated as Islamic law, called the sharia, characterized by "a transcendental order untouched by the realities of time, or by the sins of those upon whose shoulders it descends" (Campbell 438). In other words, those who administer the sharia are infallible, and Islamic culture escapes "the so-called laws of the n
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Patriarchy, orIslamic, male-dominated society also seems to have been envisionedoriginally as a proxy for altruism, protectiveness, and male obligation.Muhammad saw polygamy as a response and solution to "the pre-Islamicpractice of female infanticide, as well as a practical way to deal with thesurplus female population" (Croutier 2 ). "Dower (Mahriyeh): A Tradition in Mate Selection in Iran." International Journal of Sociology of the Family 9 (January-June 1979): 17-25.Zarinebaf-Shahr, Fariba. Yet Schwartz (79) also quotesan Algerian journalist to the effect that women "and only women . Therelevance of this to women's position in Islam can be traced to a famousverse of the Koran: Men are the protectors and maintainers of women, because Allah has given the one more (strength) than the other, and because they support them from their means. "Women and the Public Eye in Eighteenth-Century Istanbul." Women in the Medieval Islamic World. standbetween us and Islamist takeover." In Malaya, a group of Muslimprofessional women who call themselves the Sisters In Islam have attemptedto foster a reconciliation of the Koran's position on women as anchors offamily life and the drive for equal social rights. "Women and Personal Status Law in Iran: An Interview with Mehranguiz Kar." With Homa Hoodfar. Callaway and Creevey (passim) cite differences inapplication of Islamic law to Muslim women in Senegal and in northernNigeria. What these stories show is that the position of women in Islamicculture varies. By the time of Mohammed's appearance, the culturalexpression of Christianity had become ecclesial and institutional. . But Ramazani(411-15) cites an increase of marital options for Iranian women since thelate 198 s, to assert that Islamic society does not require secularism toachieve reform. It was just as sudden as I have said it: no reasons were given and none, Ali told me, had to be given. Men, Women and Change on an Indian Island." Shifting Circles of Support: Contextualising Kinship and Gender in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. . "Who Gains from Matriliny? News & World Report 29 August 1994: 39-4 .Mokeddem, Malika. In fact, the Islamic law is even morespecific, in that agnate (patrilinear) kinsfolk obtain automatic childcustody in the event of divorce or widowhood for a woman (Kar 37). . Harem: The World Behind the Veil. Martin's P, 1998. In more liberated Islamic cultures, there hasbeen a movement toward more independence for women which has resulted inmore freedom and respect for women as well as counter movements to keepwomen at home. New York: St. But it has alsobeen argued that the harem structure, at least in elite Ottoman circles,gave women back-door influence on public policy, a feature of women'straditional prerogatives in household management (Schwartz 77; Lewispassim). . Islamic doctrine evolved toward whatCampbell describes as the "ungainsayable consensus" and "the mystiqueauthority from heaven" (Campbell 439). Gavin R.G. As to those women on whose part ye fear disloyalty and ill- conduct, admonish them (first), (next), refuse to share their beds, (and last) beat them (lightly); but if they return to obedience, seek not against them means (of annoyance): for Allah is Most High, Great (above you all) (Koran, 4.34). Ed. The Masks of God: Occidental Mythology. For example, Schwartz (77) notes that the Ottoman Empire's policytoward women was structured by the sharia and the purdah, the formerreferring to "unequal personal-status laws governing marriage, divorce, andinheritance," and the latter the equivalent of the harem, whichhistorically restricted women to the home (Alireza passim). There is evidence of both liberation and suppression of women'sprerogatives in Islamic culture. "Women in Iran: The Revolutionary Ebb and Flow." Middle East Journal 47 (1993): 4 9-28.Saroukhani, Bagher. Ed. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1998.Quandt, William B. The husband, tried in absentia and living with his family in Holland,denied his apostasy but did state, specifically and programmaticallyagainst fundamentalist beliefs about the literal truth of every Koranicverse, that "nearly 14 centuries of theological accretion have obscuredoriginal meanings, and that some passages should be understood asmetaphors" ("Bad Law" 32). At the Drop of a Veil. Mokeddem (passim) uses thepolitical rivalry between fundamentalists and secularists in Algeria as thebackground for a novel in which injustices and humiliation are routinelyaimed women by patriarchal fundamentalists. Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women. Therefore the righteous women are devoutly obedient, and guard in (the husband's) absence what Allah would have them guard. . Modern Turkey, founded in 1923 by Ataturk,formally shifted away from "the moribund Ottoman Empire" and "made a high-profile commitment to women's full equality" (Schwartz 71). Ed. New York: St. Walnut Creek, Calif.: AltaMira, 1996. However, in Sri Lanka, the sharia is incontrol, and restrictions are placed on Islamic women's behavior(Goonesekere 3 5). The method that the woman's husband used to divorce her, whilethey were traveling in the United States, is typical: Ali divorced me by saying one sentence in front of an official from the Saudi Arabian Consulate in New York, and presumably signing a paper to that effect. "Heroines and Others in the Heroic Age of the Turks." Women in the Medieval Islamic World. They identify feminist stirrings in Senegal, which has beensubject to Western influences and which apparently on that account has notfallen to the persistent pressures of Islamic fundamentalism. "Devices and Desires: Population Policy and Gender Roles in the Islamic Republic." Middle East Report 24 (September-October 1994): 11-17."In the Name of Eve." The Economist 6 August 1994: 11 -12.Kar, Mehranguiz. A Cairo college professor identified as a Muslim "apostate,"apparently by professional colleagues, was ordered to divorce his Muslimwife owing to an Egyptian law that prohibits Muslim women from "marryingout." The case was brought by third-party (Islamist) intervenors ("Bad Law"32). New York: Lynne Rienner, 1993.Campbell, Joseph. . On the other hand, theseverity with which the sharia is applied to women in some Islamic culturessuggests that convictions about its immutability are deeply held. However, the evidence of the text is that it is addressed tomen, which argues their preeminent social role. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1971."Bad Law: Egypt." The Economist 1 August 1996: 32-3.Brooks, Geraldine. The facts of history are against the idea that the sharia isunchanging, at least in its real-world application. A Western woman's account of life in a modern harem as wife of a Saudiprince illustrates the discrepancy between male and female options inmarriage. Works CitedAlireza, Marianne. Plainly, the roles of protector and authority are assigned to men, andthe role of obedient wife assigned to women. "An Old Oasis of Tolerance Runs Dry: Egypt's Women Face a new Islamic Backlash." U.S. The consensus was articulated asIslamic law, called the sharia, characterized by "a transcendental orderuntouched by the realities of time, or by the sins of those upon whoseshoulders it descends" (Campbell 438). According to Croutier (2 ), "Islam holds women in particularly lowesteem, considering them intellectually dull, spiritually vapid, valuableonly to satisfy the passions of their masters and provide them male heirs.'Woman is a field, a sort of property that a husband may use or abuse as hesees fit,' says the Koran." On the other hand, it has been noted that theKoran "is better about women than is generally realised. Thecultural expression of Islam on the other hand held that religion andeveryday experience were intertwined. In Egypt in 1994 a feminist named Nawal Sa'adawi "left the countryafter the Egyptian government shut down her women's association and anIslamic group put her on its hit list" (Lief 39). The earlier act, whichauthorized bilateral divorce in Iran, was viewed as proof of theprogressive nature of the Shah's regime (Saroukhani 19-22). . New York: Viking/Penguin, 1978.Croutier, Alev Lytle. The fact that these rolesmight conflict as a practical matter does not seem to have beenanticipated. The Forbidden Woman. In fundamentalistIslamic culture, the status of women is low and totally subordinate totheir husband or father. 3 2-3 .Hoodfar, Homa. Walnut Creek, Calif.: AltaMira, 1996. In 1996, one woman was targeted through a religious attack onher husband. Hambly. A feminist lawyer in Iran has criticized the 1979 Iranian Revolution'soverturning of Iran's Family Protection Act, passed in 1967 during theregime of the Shah, in favor of a traditional Islamic code that allowshusbands to engage in arbitrary divorce and various forms of polygyny("temporary" marriage, concubinage, multiple wives). This research examines the status of women in Islamic society. In the modern period, especially in so-called Islamic fundamentalistsocieties, male authority over women appears to have been interpreted lessin terms of obligation to women and more in terms of control of them. It may be the case that, as Quandt notes (164), "Islam has beenreceptive to almost every misogynist custom it encountered in the greatmarch out of Arabia," but there is a view that this dynamic had more to dowith the societies in which Islam was adopted than with Islamic doctrineper se. Ed. " Nine Parts of Desire." Foreign Affairs 74 (March-April 1995): 164-5..Ramazani, Nesta. Hambly. Middle East Report 26 (January-March 1996): 36-38.Lewis, Geoffrey. Butnot all Islamic cultures are ruled solely by the sharia, and it is appliedin different ways in various nation-states where Islam predominates. Thestatus of women originated in the Koran and Mohammed's interpretation of it14 years ago. . Rajni Palriwala, and Carla Risseeuw. "Gender Relations in the Family: Law and Public Policy in Post-Colonial Sri Lanka." Shifting Circles of Support: Contextualising Kinship and Gender in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. In other words, those who administerthe sharia are infallible, and Islamic culture escapes "the so-called lawsof the nations [that] are but delusions, afflicting all in whose hearts thelight has not yet dawned" (Campbell 439). In any event, in the context of militant and fundamentalistIslam, a new consensus about the appropriate view of the future status ofwomen in Islamic society has not been arrived at. Rajni Palriwala, and Carla Risseeuw. New York: Anchor Books, 1995.Callaway, Barbara, and Creevey, Lucy. In Egypt, the Sudan, andSomalia, the practice of female circumcision is enforced routinely ("In theName" 112). [T]o my mother who came and asked him why, he said, "It is God's will" (Alireza 265).Divorced women in Islamic culture lose all rights to children once theyreach the age of seven (Alireza 266). That was all he had to do, as a Moslem, to free himself from me, although it did not free me from our California marriage. Martin's P, 1998.Lief, Louise. The divorce-initiation option for women, which took effectin 1968, was overturned by the revolution. 157-89.Goonesekere, Savitri. New York: Abbeville P, 1989.Dube, Leela. Insuch countries as Egypt, Turkey, and Algeria, where fundamentalist activismaims to install the sharia as the unchanging law of the land,fundamentalist successes have been both dramatic and spotty. The Heritage of Islam: Women, Religion, and Politics in West Africa. FundamentalistIslamists gained control in a number of Turkey's municipal elections in themid-199 s--but that was also the period in which Turkey elected its firstfemale prime minister at the national level. A first wife may initiatedivorce only if a husband takes a second wife (Hoodfar 15). Gavin R.G. The evidence from nation-states that have adopted strictand immutable Islamic tradition as a matter of law, however, is that therehas been a negative impact on the experience of women. What is significantabout that informal group is that its very existence would be unthinkablein Sudan or Saudi Arabia ("In the Name" 11 f). However, inthe predominantly Muslim northern Nigeria women are virtually hareminhabitants, prevented from social interactions on a par with men. Eve was not,as for Christians and Jews, the belated product of Adam's rib; the two wereborn equal, 'from a single soul' ("In the Name" 111). Dube (167-8ff) cites the governance of the predominantly Islamicislands of India's Lakshadweep Territory in the Indian Ocean, based on theso-called taravad, or a matrilinear style of governance which appears tohave accommodated Islamic concepts of property and trade in exchange forthe guarantee of women's rights.
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