The Path Towards Islamic Feminism

By Yaratullah Monturiol

For more than fourteen centuries we Muslim women have had a privileged status… While Western women awakened slowly, creating a climate of social awareness, in the Islamic world we have been on the defensive arguing a complete “ethical code” of principles, taking the form of the sacred texts and traditional teachings that furnished irrefutable evidence of a great equity in the status of women and which converted her (in theory) in citizen with full rights from the Islamic perspective. In other words, no woman should suffer discrimination on the basis of gender, but neither should Muslim women according to what has been legislated by Islam for her protection.

However, the fact that she has almost never been able to count on the cooperation of her brothers in religion has delayed her reaction when it comes to problems of gender and she has directed herself towards causes that are more easily shared or shareable. For example, in recent centuries some of these women have become great fighters against colonization and today still play a great part in the resistance against cultural assimilation which the West has been attempting for some time. It has been precisely these women who have best known how to defend the so-called “Muslim identity”.

There are many influencing factors in the confusion about Islam, for example language, which is for the human being an elemental form of expression. In the first place, the term “believer” or the concept “faith” are not exactly translations but rather Christianized interpretations that are a long way, in an etymological sense, from their original meanings in Arabic. This means that we have ended up from Islam establishing parallelisms that do not correspond to our metaphysical reality, a reality which is neither conceptual nor abstract. It is practice and experience – action together with intention. In this sense, the individual is jointly responsible (caliph) for all that happens and, as an implicit part of the process, has a direct effect on it. Using this basis as a starting point, “faith” is not precisely that but rather “imân”, which is not about “belief”, but rather about the store of trust which one who acts with responsibility houses within, or rather the sensitivity with which a person is open to signs that provide him or her with knowledge and that drive him or her to reflection. Far from the short-sightedness of fatalistic obscurantism, the attitude of the mu’minat (commonly translated as “the believers”) ought to constitute a source of individual and collective growth in continuous evolution, since we are immersed in the jalq al yalid (the never ceasing creation).

Why haven’t Muslim women participated in the feminist movements of Western women? Why don’t they play a more active role? Unfortunately, Western feminists, as a result of a hastily made deduction which has now become established, assume that Muslim women suffer from discrimination on account of Islam. This assumption, supported by very powerful media platforms, is a standard stereotype which is difficult to argue against and for this reason Muslim women find themselves faced with a great dilemma that affects them at every level of their existence, with serious consequences for their psychological state and for their soul.

Three critical reflections on the global feminist attitude with respect to Muslim women

We should be honest and recognise that in general terms non-Muslim societies, and above all the West, blindly believe that Islam does not provide values which are able to be defended in our times, that it is an out of date system which should be abolished for the progress of all humanity given that it endangers the most fundamental human rights and even democracy… Of course women are the scapegoat in this crusade. This treatise, in spite of being recognised by international laws as an obvious instigator of fear of Islam, is not limited to being proclaimed by the more belligerent, but has also infiltrated into civil society. Faced with this “danger” from Islam seen as an enemy of the system, the type of “liberation” that is sought by the West for the Muslim woman is usually the giving up of her daily practices. In this aspect feminist movements in general are strongly opposed to permitting participation by Muslim women when they try to defend their rights as women and claim their right to “Islam” at the same time.

Western feminists have fought courageously and with these comments I do not take away from the merit of their achievements, but firstly they have always fought from their world which is ethnocentric and culturally closed to other ideas, without the possibility of recognising Muslim women who for them are total strangers. English women have been pioneers in the feminist movement and an indispensable reference for other women, but their incursions and influence in many countries were clearly pro-colonialist. Contrary to this political leaning, the movements of non-Western women (to which, because of this, we have never referred as feminist movements), were always anti-colonialist… In this we find basic ideological and political differences which we cannot avoid. It is important to look at the context in which women move.

The second serious problem with Western feminists in relation to the difficulty in coming together and mutual collaboration in order to achieve common objectives, is in the contradictory image that they have built up of “orthodoxy” in Islam. Male chauvinist readings are usually given more credit to than any other interpretation and in order to confirm stereotypes are placed above other versions which are more favourable to the interests of women. This is another serious basic problem upon which it is important to reflect, as the diversity of Islam should not permit the dogmatic hegemony of a number of fixed attitudes which have been adopted and which prevail immovably over others, even less so when they prejudice collective interests, as many schools in our traditional Islam indeed specify. We must listen to other voices. Western society has great responsibility for endorsing criteria that are erroneously considered as the most representative of Islam, in detriment to other criteria to which a deaf ear is often turned.

Thirdly, one has to avoid Western paternalisms and understand that it is not lack of thought nor of autonomy that impedes the progress of Muslim men and women in this state of darkness. The complicity in maintaining dictatorial structures and corrupt powers in many countries with a Muslim majority and the influence and interference for diplomatic motives and of political and economic interests, attributing to Islam the cause of our misfortune is not only perversely dangerous for all but is also a negligence that we are already paying for dearly, for lack of will - political but also civic. With a greater inclination towards urgent debate and due to the mere fact of opening that door to dialogue immediate results are already being achieved.

Three critical reflections about the global attitude of Muslims women with respect to feminism

Muslim women do not escape criticism in this reflection, given that despite the fact that they are used by others as a psychological or physical weapon of war we are not going to succumb to victimization (which does not serve any purpose). It is also true that on a personal, family or community level many women do not of course live Islam in this traumatic way. I do not deny the pleasure that many of us Muslim women feel in savouring (dzauq) the fact of living as Muslim women, and this needs to be pointed out because this part of the story usually remains hidden, or when one attempts to give evidence of this perception, also real, the polemic questions are sometimes ignored. However there are three elements that contribute to stagnation.

The first is the resignation and apathy with which this situation of real discrimination is lived, as a result of the comfort that Islam itself gives. Although it may seem absurd, it has its logic. If this tradition is originally based in key principles that socially try to minimize inequalities (liberate the oppressed, legally protect the most unfortunate, eradicate sacrifices such as burying young girls alive) and women achieve citizenship with full rights (economic independence, sexual liberty – they can choose their husband, say yes or no without being able to be forced, as well as the right to divorce or to establish clauses in their contracts which stipulate the conditions that they decide, participate politically in the making of decisions, amongst other things), how can you believe what is happening? In other words, the fact that the social system that Islam has created since its beginnings is innovative and means an improvement in the status of women since so long ago has caused a conformism (also encouraged by repression and censorship) that keeps us stagnated, as if there has been nothing to resolve since then. However the reforms that were already put forward before Islam are still to be carried out. To anchor oneself in the past and consider that the way of life of women more than fourteen centuries ago is applicable in today’s world, would be like giving up not only the fundamentals of Islam, but also a complete historical legacy that converted Islam in a civilization in which its cultural, artistic and scientific splendour were a great school for the entire world during centuries. Neither the memory nor the origins have to be given up (although all throughout history this has been persistently attempted and may be, among other things, one of the reasons that the said resistance to change has occurred). But one has to live in the times and adopt that caliphate that Islam proposes to us. I invite the Muslim women who are most learned in this subject to provide facts and write about and investigate this legacy, which many have dedicated themselves to hiding, because it is of utmost importance in order to put things back where they belong.

The other matter on which we need to undertake some serious self-criticism is the indifference to and lack of solidarity with which we have taken on the fact that so may thousands of women live in a situation of oppression or exploitation without saying anything. It is shameful that other women, who don’t even understand what is happening to us, have to demand our rights because we, as Muslim women, do not do it ourselves. With this cowardly and hypocritical attitude we support what our Islamic principles condemn, what Muhammad (s.a.s) wanted to change, what so many (starting with Hadiya, the first person to embrace Islam without doubts and followed by an endless list of women, some exceptional but many of them normal people) have demonstrated is not the case, with their attitudes, with their acts and with their lives. It is intolerable. And with the cold-bloodedness of those who believe the misfortune that others suffer is not their problem we are capable of becoming used to and of contemplating without blushing the worst treatment, verbal or written, with words, expressions, looks, blows… in domestic behaviour, government structures, community political decisions, or even in the simple differences between two adolescent siblings educated by the same parents, depending on whether we are talking about a boy or a girl.

We cannot excuse ourselves saying that “it happens everywhere”. Yes it is true that here women die at the hands of their husbands and ex-husbands and that the figures are horrifying and outrageous, but this does not exempt us from fault for being silent accomplices. And we know that according to the hadith, justice is half of Islam. But we are suspicious when someone condemns what is happening, when a Muslim man or woman is critical and we doubt their loyalty to Islam. Wouldn’t it be more logical to mistrust this self complacency that leads us to turn a blind eye to that which prejudices us as Muslims, as people?

The third reflection is about the relationship of Muslim women to each other, to other women and to feminism in particular. The term “feminism” had not been incorporated into women’s movements until recently for various reasons, amongst others for lack of empathy. It was very difficult to identify with feminism without giving up the Islamic identity, as it implied a secularism that firstly is not shared by practising Muslim women and secondly this belligerent secularism itself excludes them (could there be another concept of the same term with different connotations?). Could it be that we have to resign ourselves and continue to be outcasts? In this regard, it must be recognised that twenty years ago discussion was almost impossible and now, on the other hand, although still in the minority and not very easy, a crack of light has shone through in this direction.

Where are we?

What has happened? Why are we talking today about Islamic feminism?

In the same way that Negro women have had to specifically claim this characteristic for themselves, the Muslim woman also needs to express this characteristic as a characteristic added to the fact of being a woman. Likewise, in relation to other women they need to claim their right to be different in order to be respected. We cannot now commit the same mistake as always. Our differences should not leave us isolated or cut-off. Women’s networks should expand their horizons opening their doors to all women who fight to improve the situation, whatever colour, origin or faith they may be. Muslim women are mobilizing all over the world – some are fighting in Africa or in Asia in much more difficult circumstances than ours here and doing so in a heroic and exemplary manner. We must be attentive to what is occurring around us, responsive and showing our solidarity.

There are already many groups of women at an international level which are anti-globalization and pro-human rights, etc. As well we have inter-religious dialogue and other forms of meeting such as the Foro Social (Social Forum), at which the voices of women come together and networks of cooperation and certain involvement are established, which before we could not even imagine. Let’s hope that this solidarity and coming together grows and multiplies, and above all that it generates the energy and capacity that we need in order that the courage of these women may transform our global society into a world that is less patriarchal, less male chauvinist and less bellicose. SALAM.

Yaratullah Monturiol is President of Catalan Islamic Council (Spain), the organization of the First International Congress on Islamic Feminism (Barcelona on the 27th, 28th and 29th of October 2005.)
More information: www.islamicfeminism.org