Islam and Feminism (Again)

That Prophet Muhammad’s coming was to free women from the old jahiliyah patriarchal culture in Arab at that time was already well-known. (Literally the word jahiliyah means stupid.) For example, before Muhammad was born, many baby girls were killed because the parents were ashamed to have daughters. Daughters were considered only to be burden for the family because they could not go to war, could not protect themselves, could not become breadwinner, could not become proprietor, etc. Before Muhammad was made to be a Prophet by God, men could have as many wives as they liked, and then divorced them when they wanted it.
After Muhammad was born and made to be a Prophet, no more baby girls were killed. And to handle many Muslim men that died in Uhud war, God passed down Surah Annisa verse 3 stating that Muslim men could marry two, three, and four wives. This was to help women to protect their properties. Because women could not become property owners, after their husbands died, the property would belong to the women’s brothers, or uncles. And since many brothers and uncles did not treat those women who were supposed to have the properties well, Surah Annisa verse 3 was expected to save women’s lives. A husband was expected to treat his wife much better than selfish brothers or uncles treat their sisters or nieces. A good husband was expected to keep their wives’ properties well for the welfare of those women themselves and their children.
Besides, Surah Annisa verse 3 was also meant to stop the practice of outrageous polygamy, by having many wives. A man was not supposed to have more than four wives. And marrying those widowed women whose husbands died in the war was for women themselves to keep their properties, to help raise children, and not just to fulfill men’s hunger for sex.
When reading an article written by Dr. Sharif Abdel Azeem entitled “Women in Islam versus Women in Judaeo-Christian Tradition, The Myth and The Reality” (you can check here http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/humanrelations/womeninislam/womeninjud_chr.html#_Toc335566653 I accessed on May 18, 2003) and a book by Dr. Jerald F. Dirks entitled “Abrahamic Faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam Similarities and Contrasts ”, I found out that indeed in Alquran there is no gender-biased verse while in Judaeo-Christian Tradition, there are a lot gender-biased verses. For example, in facing the case of Adam’s Fall to the earth, Judaeo-Christian Tradition blamed Eve for that:
Consequently, God said to Eve:
"I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you."
To Adam He said:
"Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree .... Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life..."
(Genesis 2:4-3:24)
While in Alquran, God blamed both Adam and Eve:
"O Adam dwell with your wife in the Garden and enjoy as you wish but approach not this tree or you run into harm and transgression. Then Satan whispered to them in order to reveal to them their shame that was hidden from them and he said: 'Your Lord only forbade you this tree lest you become angels or such beings as live forever.' And he swore to them both that he was their sincere adviser. So by deceit he brought them to their fall: when they tasted the tree their shame became manifest to them and they began to sew together the leaves of the Garden over their bodies. And their Lord called unto them: 'Did I not forbid you that tree and tell you that Satan was your avowed enemy?' They said: 'Our Lord we have wronged our own souls and if You forgive us not and bestow not upon us Your Mercy, we shall certainly be lost' " (7:19:23).
There are many other examples that you can find by yourselves about how Alquran increases women’s position.
The following question is: why are now even Islamic teachings considered as more misogynist? One debatable example is about polygamy. In Indonesia (I am not talking about the condition in many other areas in the world, including Mormon community in America where many Mormon men practice polygamy too) Islam is accused as not women-friendly because of this. Other religions are known as not let the men adhering those religions marry more than one wife.
When talking about Syariat Islam (Islamic Law) in Indonesia, why are the regulations misogynistic? Pornography Bills imprison women, such as behind their clothes, some regional regulations, such as the one in Tangerang, accuses women as selling themselves only because they are still roaming outside the house after 9pm, without trying to find out first what those women need to do.
One comment I got in my blog (he/she sent me an article written by Dr. Syamsuddin Arif) wrote that Fatima Mernissi (from Morocco), Riffat Hassan (from Pakistan), Amina Wadud (from Malaysia but then migrated to America, who several years ago controversially stated that women could become Imam in Friday prayer), Siti Musdah Mulia (from Indonesia) were very shallow in (re)interpreting Alquran. They were also called as “radical feminists”, a somewhat different term from radical feminists addressed to Mary Daly or Germaine Greer.
I don’t agree if Dr. Syamsuddin Arif said that Fatima Mernissi et al (re)interpreted Alquran shallowly. Moreover if Fatima Mernissi et al were considered as ignoring Alquran, I completely disagree with that. With new theories invented by contemporary scholars, there is nothing wrong to reinterpret Alquran that is free from gender bias (compared to the classical fiqh resulted by gender-biased mufassir).
I agree that the verses in Alquran are free from gender bias. And what Fatima Mernissi et all have done is not to negate what is stated in Alquran, but they gave a new interpretation. Is reinterpreting the same as negating or annihilating? Of course not.
One thing that is very wrong from people’s opinion about feminist movement is that people consider feminists want to conquer the world and turn it upside down, let’s say to change it to be female-dominated world (instead of male-dominated world). NO. Indeed there are some radical feminists that want to spread the idea of living without men. However, their number is very limited. More feminists want to realize a world that is friendly for both men and women (I do agree that even in male-dominated world, some men also become victims in it).
By the way, talking about the application of Islamic teachings in Indonesia, I don’t think it wise because Indonesia is not an Islam country. Although belonging to minority groups, some other religions are admitted officially by the government. It means that the law in Indonesia must be based on the benefits for all parties. Being a religious snob only because we belong to the majorities is not wise at all, do you agree?
By Nana P, a feminist and secular Muslim.
PT56 08.30 010607

Islam and Feminism

“I am of opinion that Islam is the most oppressive religion to women. So, it is just a bull shit thing to talk about feminism in Islam.”

This was what one of good friends wrote in her email some months ago. She happened to be not Muslim. While in fact, in several emails I sent her, I inserted what Fatima Mernissi—a Muslim feminist from Morocco—said: ““If the rights of Muslim women become problems for Muslim men, it is not because of Alquran or Islam itself; it is because these rights contradict with the wants of the elite Muslim men.” It is clearly stated that neither Islam nor Alquran is oppressive to women, but people—mostly men—who interpreted Alquran gender-biasedly.

One morning, Wednesday March 14, 2007 I read a rubric of consultation in one local newspaper. A man sent a letter saying that he would marry a woman again after her first wife passed away three years before. He didn’t get any kid from his first wife. He expects to have babies from his second marriage in order that he will have children to take care of him when he gets old. . (I am wondering whether there are people in the world who purely want to have babies for the babies’ sake, and not for their own egotism; such as to ask the babies to pay back for what they have done.) Unfortunately his second wife-to-be insists that they not have any baby anymore. She already has one child from her previous husband. This man is confused whether to continue his plan to marry this woman while in fact what he wants from his second marriage is to have babies (or at least a baby). In another side, if he cancels to marry that woman, he already fell in love with her.

The answer from the one who is in charge of the rubric (a woman, a professor holding a Doctorate’s Degree, working for an Islamic College, and she is also in charge of Women Bodies in the same institution) is she suggested the man to persuade his girlfriend to get babies because in Islam, having babies is one main goal of a marriage, to create pious Muslim children—that means pious Muslim next generation. She also suggested him to tell his girlfriend that having children can make a family more harmonious. The answer was ended with the statement, “if you have done all ways to convince your wife-to-be to have a baby, and it fails, you can reconsider your plan to marry her. Pray to God to ask God’s sign.”

If that suggestion is interpreted by a chauvinist Muslim, I assume he will make use of Islam to force the woman to have babies, because it is requested by God to have babies after getting married. Perhaps he will sweetly but forcefully say, “Please have another baby, darling. This is what God wants you to do after marrying me. And this is for our own future afterlife. We will go to heaven for that.” This is one thing I hate—when someone makes use of Islam and Alquran to oppress women.

I don’t have any idea why that Professor who has published a book to make Muslim women—and also men—aware that Islam is not a chauvinist religion still thinks of oppressing another woman in the name of religion. Children are not only our flesh children. When that man marries his girlfriend who already has a kid from the first husband, he can love and take care of the kid just like the kid is his own kid. When we do good to others, others will do good to us, wise people say.

As a secular Muslim feminist, I am of opinion that right to decide to have a baby belongs to women. This is fully women’s prerogative. Women know their bodies much better than men. When pregnant, omen will undergo morning sickness, get exhausted easily, undergo the pain when delivering the baby. And not the man.

Going back to the statement of my good friend in one of her emails—that Islam is the most oppressive religion to women; I am still convinced that neither Islam nor the Alquran is oppressive to women, the people who interpret the verses in the Alquran are the ones who are gender-biased.
PT56 21.25 250307

Qur'an Menurut Perempuan

Recently I have been “carrying” a book entitled Quran Menurut Perempuan by Amina Wadud, the Indonesian translation of Quran and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman's Perspective in 1999. It is not a new book. I have known this book for some years. I’ve got the excerpt of it on the net. However, I “found” this book in a local bookstore last April 30, Sacred Text from a Woman’s Perspective published by Oxford University Press, New York 2006. It was just translated into Bahasa Indonesia and published in March 2006.
The book has been in my work bag since I bought it. As usual, I let my concentration to read this book distracted by many other things, including reading many other books at the same time. LOL. I didn’t mean to show that book to my workmates demonstratively but of course since I often “carry” the book, and once in a while I put it on a big table in the teachers’ room of my workplace, some workmates of mine have seen this book.
Yesterday a Catholic workmate of mine asked me, “What is the book about?” simply I answered, “Well, so far, Alquran has been interpreted by men so no wonder if the result is very male-dominated. And this book contains the different perspective; showing that if Alquran is interpreted by women, using women’s perspective, the result is absolutely different, even in some cases, shows contradictory interpretation.” This workmate of mine nodded, didn’t ask me further.
This afternoon, another workmate of mine said to me jokingly, related to the same book, “I told you not to read books about gender much. It is not good.”
I responded, “It is not good for you guys coz women realize their rights much better so that this world will not be male-dominated any longer.” LOL.
It reminded me of the middle age before Bible was translated into many other languages. Common people couldn’t read it; moreover understand it. Only limited ministers whose way of thinking had been “shaped” by Church could read it. And since they all had been indoctrinated the same way, of course all of them resulted in the same interpretation; they taught the congregation about the same thing, only from one perspective.
After reading the article entitled “Women In Islam Versus Women In The Judaeo-Christian Tradition: The Myth & The Reality” by Dr. Sherif Abdel Azeem at http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/humanrelations/womeninislam/womeninjud_chr.html#_Toc335566653 accessed on May 18, 2003 it made me question myself. According to Sherif Abdel Azeem, the illustration about women in Judeaeo-Christian Tradition shows the very low position given to women, but why in the reality, people consider Islam as the most chauvinistic religion of all? Islam that “lets men have more than one wife” is considered to degrade women’s position much more than the other two celestial religions mentioned by Sherif Abdel Azeem?
I related it to the fact that until now, Muslim people must recite Alquran, in its original language—Arabic. For me, Arabic is much more difficult to learn than English (coz I already become an English teacher? LOL) Many Muslim people recite Alquran everyday; however they don’t understand the meaning. To understand the meaning, they turn to the Tafsir (the interpretation of Alquran) produced by men. To help themselves understand Alquran and apply its teachings in their daily life, they turn to Alhadith written by men. They also turn to Fiqh which was written by men too!!! The result? You know that …
Again, I want to quote what Fatima Mernissi said:

“If the rights of Muslim women become problems for Muslim men, it is not because
of Alquran or Islam itself; it is because these rights contradict with the wants
of the elite Muslim men.”

If women themselves don’t struggle to reach their equality with men, for a better and equal world for both men and women, who else will do that?
PT56 21.10 100606