Gradual stable change to the status and rights of Muslim women is therefore achievable through Islam. Additionally, this holistic approach to advancing the rights and freedoms of women in the Middle East cannot work without giving the primary role to local voices.
See also Al-Hibri. Gender Equality, Islam, and Law. Five unknown and misunderstood issues about women in Islam 1. Because Islam is used against women, it is essential to engage with the religion in order to clarify misunderstandings and misconceptions among those who use the religion to oppress women. As most Muslim women seek to behave in accordance with the teachings of Islam, understanding the religion is important and liberating for Muslim women.
The popularization of these alternative interpretations as well as alternative religious education in the Middle East can provide Muslim men and women the tools to advocate gender equality in Islam and through Islam. Culture is dynamic and contextual; it interacts with, influences and is influenced by religious and legal systems. Just as patriarchal traditions infiltrated interpretations of Islamic text, these dominant interpretations prevented the much needed changes to patriarchal traditions.
In this case, these Islamic interpretations legitimized the patriarchal customs, where the conservative Islamic interpretations are often brought up against any attempt to reform laws or change patriarchal traditions. As such, a holistic multi-dimensional approach that incorporates all social, legal, and religious foundations of gender discrimination needs to be adopted.
Interpretations are, after all, interpretations. While some may agree with the alternative non-patriarchal interpretations of Islamic text, others may continue to believe in and use the misogynistic prejudiced readings of Islam.
Moreover, as al-Hibri herself points out, 15 interpretations are subject to the influence and control of powerful entities and their interests. The answer lies within the culture itself. The dangers of misconstruing culture with religion is apparent. What often occurs is different communities often mix their culture with religion, resulting in different versions of Islam being practiced from one community to the next with dire consequences for women. That is because opponents often hide behind arguments that religion takes precedence over all other rights.
Skip to main content. Email Facebook Twitter. Learn more. In doing so, this Article will look at one practice that is erroneously perceived as being governed by Islamic law: honor killings. Furthermore, Islam has sanctioned and perpetuated many sexist practices and views, including polygamy, the stigmatization of menstruation, the requirement of wifely obedience to the husband, and the inequality of inheritance and court appearances.
All of these practices have at one point or another been part of Christian and Jewish practices or cultures. Although religion bears major responsibility for the inferior status of women, it cannot be solely blamed for the gender problem in the Middle East. In reality, the role of culture has been even more prominent in perpetuating the oppression of women. Female genital mutilation, for example, is a cultural practice that has afflicted women in several cultures at different times in history.
The practice, which in Islam garners dubious permission in an alleged Hadith of the Prophet, is largely unknown in most Muslim countries, though it is still practiced in rural areas of both Muslim and non-Muslim parts of Africa. Furthermore, though veiling has become a symbol of Middle Eastern oppression of women, the practice actually came to Muslim cultures from Christian Byzantium.
In fact, the role of the West regarding Middle Eastern women is often obscured. Western colonial powers have historically shed crocodile tears over the plight of Muslim women and have vilified Islam for its role in this oppression. Ironically, in medieval times Islam was actually attacked by Christian polemicists for being too permissive and tolerant in social and sexual matters.
Western treatment of Muslim women has been hypocritical at best. Thus the status of women in the Middle East was used merely to denigrate Islam and the culture of the region. The legacy of colonial feminism persists; feminism in the Middle East is often discredited, by governments and by local enemies of feminism, because it is associated with the sequels of colonialism.
Ever since the s, successive American governments have supported Saudi Arabian Islam and have funded and armed Islamic fundamentalist groups, which have tormented Middle Eastern women and frustrated their efforts at emancipation. The U. The antipathy to U. Not that the U. Many human rights organizations have documented human rights violations within the United States.
But the U. No serious and credible policy on human rights can ignore the abysmal record of the Saudi royal family, which has imposed on the Saudi Arabian people one of the most oppressive regimes in the world. The brand of Wahhabi Islam imposed in Saudi Arabia is seen in no other country. Qatar, which follows Wahhabi doctrine, has been launching a series of social and political reforms affecting women in the past few years.
Currently, I am carrying out a study on emotional experiences of Muslim women living in Hamilton, the fourth largest city in New Zealand. Based on these studies, I believe the binary categorisation of Muslim women is not accurate. Many Muslim women are well acquainted with the principles of universal modernity and values of individualism and professionalism.
They actively adopt parts of these values and reflect them in their everyday lives. This growing group of Muslim women has access to higher education, engages in social and political debates , they wear fashionable clothes , and take an active role in spreading and improving understanding of Islam.
Moreover, these women are technologically adept and social media-savvy. They have various reasons for wearing the veil, not exclusively because their religion or someone else has forced them to do so. During the European colonial period, for example, the hijab was worn by Muslim women as a sign of anti-colonial resistance to re-affirm their identity and culture.
Several studies in the UK , Canada and the US also reveal that for some Muslim women, Islamic dress and the veil function as strong statements of identity.
For Muslim women living in Europe and the United States, wearing the veil is a way of forming an ethno-religious identity — a way of belonging. For many Muslims the veil is a symbol of modesty. She has lived in New Zealand for three years and she started to wear a hijab in New Zealand one year ago. This research estimates that the global Muslim population will grow from 1.
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