Robinson The Hidden Half

Women and Islam
1. Auflage 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9942607-9-6
Verlag: CHI-Books
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 178 Seiten

This book is about women and Islam. It does not seek to sensationalize; nor should it be seen as an attempt to moralize. It simply records widespread practice and the authoritative religious texts that validate these practices. It also seeks to motivate the reader to engage with Muslims in society through practical actions of Christian grace.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Robinson, Stuart

Leseproben

Introduction One of the results of 20th century warfare is that vast tracts of former battlegrounds still have landmines buried just beneath the surface. One of these blighted areas is in the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula. The government of Egypt has done its best to try to locate, explode and clear its territory of this deadly military ordnance. Clearance operations take various forms. In the Sinai, one preferred method has been to deploy large armored bulldozers fitted with metal drums. Chains attached to these revolving drums thrashed the ground in front of the bulldozer as it moved slowly forward. The objective of this engineering ingenuity was to locate and cause the mines to explode whenever the chains pounded the covering of sand or soil. Local Bedouin tribesmen developed an equally effective, less costly method of de-mining territory over which they traversed. Often they knew where local minefields were. But in the event they wished to cross unfamiliar terrain, “their women were dispatched out in front to be followed by the camels and then the men.” That practice provides a different application of the standard emergency procedure of “women and children first.” 3 It also provides a graphic image of the status and value accorded to women in many Muslim societies. Leyla Zara was born in the province of Diyarbakir in southeast Turkey in 1961. When she was 14 years of age she was married to 34-year-old Mehdi Zara. When she was 30, she became the first Kurdish woman elected to the Turkish Parliament. Her own reported summation of her life experience in Muslim Turkey was: “If you are a man, you have value; if you are a woman, you don’t.” 4 Although approximately 10% of the world’s population may be Muslim and female, within countries where Islamic law predominates, they are mostly silenced in public spaces and rendered effectively invisible by the clothing they are obliged to wear. They are frequently condemned to suffer abuse and indignity through male mouthpieces who determine their roles and outcomes. Lama al-Gamdi reportedly suffered multiple injuries including a broken back, a crushed skull, broken ribs and a broken left arm. Her body showed evidence of burns and repeated rape. A reason given for such violence was that her virginity was suspect. The perpetrator of this violence was Fayhar al-Ghamdi, a prominent Islamist preacher in Saudi Arabia. He was the victim’s father. His daughter was five years of age. Under Islamic law a father or husband exercises life and death authority over his family. In this case reportedly the court ruled that monetary compensation, that is “blood money”, could be paid to the next of kin if requested. The amount payable would have been doubled had the victim been male.5 Tehran, the capital city of Iran, is located within an earthquake zone. Seismologists have predicted that a major earthquake will devastate the city in the near future. Senior Iranian cleric, Hajatoleslam Kazem Sedighi leveled an accusation relatively common within Muslim societies. He reportedly announced that women who do not dress appropriately “lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society.” In other words, “immorality” is the woman’s fault. Then he went further by reportedly declaring that “women who wear revealing clothing and behave immorally are responsible for earthquakes.” 6 Causing a young male’s pulse to beat faster is bad enough. But to cause an earthquake...! How much blame is any woman able to bear? Kazem Sedighi’s claim seems bizarre to the uninitiated. Al-Gamdi’s violence seems abhorrent. This is because non-Muslims are mostly ignorant of the basis for such opinions and actions. For observant Muslims, all life must be guided by: 1. The Holy Quran 2. The Hadith, which are authenticated transmitted Traditions of the sayings and activities of Prophet Muhammad 3. Biographies of the Prophet who is regarded by Muslims as the perfect model for humanity 4. Sharia Law, the codification of which occurred in the ninth century in the aftermath of the Arab conquests. This gave rise to the four schools of Islamic thought and jurisprudence. Like any historic precedent, each of the above is subject to interpretation when it comes to contemporary application. Community and political leaders, supported by religious leaders, often issue interpretations that are little more than thinly veiled justifications designed to legitimize their own desired ends. Thus religious documents are used to change group attitudes. According to Robert Hunt, “this behavior... is driven not by religion but by economic competition, a desire to settle old scores, fear of the other and primitive religious and tribal affiliations of interest.” 7 These mechanisms even operate internationally. In the late 20th century the political leadership of both Iran and Iraq declared each other’s citizens to be infidels. This legitimized the longest war in that century. Religious leaders on both sides of the conflict were happy to issue the necessary fatwas—that is, religious rulings—demonizing the opposition and enabling Jihad and its mass killing to occur. Within nations it is more common for there to be uniform interpretation of Sharia Law. For example, in Saudi Arabia, the Wahhabi interpretation “requires a Muhrim—father, husband, brother or son—to accompany women in public, allow them to travel and to attest their legal contracts.” 8 Not all of these practices are applied in other Muslim-majority jurisdictions. What is uniform and consistent in the Quran, Hadith, biographies of the Prophet and Sharia Law is the teaching of male superiority over females. Muslim feminists claim that Mohammad promised emancipation and equality. They assert that “women are suppressed not because of the Quran or the Prophet, but because these rights conflict with the interests of the ruling male elite... men who want to keep women in a state of subservience.” 9 Not all Muslim women would agree. Turkish born Zelfa Draz was the editor of a slick, glossy Arabic women’s magazine, “Sheba”. Her grandmother was taken to serve as a concubine of the Sultan of Turkey when she was seven years of age. Her mother did not see her father before their marriage. Zelfa herself seemed to consider she had fared much better in her generation. By the time she was 30 she had been the Turkish tennis champion, a divorcee and had become a businesswoman. As a member of a small, elite, educated, affluent, fashion-conscious class, she seemed to be uninterested in reform. She reportedly generalized that “Islamic women are not interested in changing their lives... They are genuinely astonished to find themselves regarded in the West as exploited or oppressed.” 10 From the lofty stratum of privilege, editing the magazine of which the vast majority of Muslim women could not even afford to buy a single copy, Ms Draz sounds like the former French queen, Marie Antoinette. When she was informed of riots in the streets because of lack of availability of bread, she infamously replied, “Let them eat cake.” It was beyond her comprehension to understand the reality in the streets. Why would those at the top want to change their position or experience? They’re like fish that also cannot see the water in which they swim, let alone envisage anything beyond their watery domain. At the top of the food chain, sharks are unaware of their impact upon others. It has always been like this. It’s a good life. Why change it? Compare Draz’s outlook with that of a former Palestinian West Bank inhabitant, Souad. She said, “Where I come from, being born a girl is a curse: a wife must first produce a son, at least one, and if she gives birth to only girls, she is mocked. At most, two or three girls are needed to help with the housework, to work on the land and to tend the animals. If more girls are born, it is a great misfortune and they should be got rid of as soon as possible. I lived like this until I was 18, knowing nothing except that I was worth less than an animal because I was a girl.” 11 Certainly she longed for change. But how are such attitudes formed? Is it just culture? If so, what shapes that culture? In 1980, when Santi Soekanto was 18 she became the first woman in her family in Indonesia to wear a veil. Her mother and four sisters have since followed suit. She represents the changing face of a newly emerging middle class in her society.12 Veiling of women was almost unknown in Asia in the middle of the 20th century. Affluence is increasing, but so is the influence of traditional Islam. And it never changes because its core religious texts can never change. In Indonesia when husbands took second wives, tertiary-educated careerist women who felt their marriages were based on equal rights were shocked. They ultimately discovered that “in every case Islamic courts sided with the polygamous husbands.” 13 In Malaysia when a leading politician allegedly had an affair with a 15-year-old schoolgirl who became pregnant, the case against the male politician was dropped. The girl, who had cooperated with police, became liable for prosecution under Sharia Law for the crime of fornication.14 Non-Muslims would query the justice of such an outcome. In March 2002, the Saudi religious police, the Mutawwa’een, forbad firefighters in Mecca from rescuing girls inside a blazing school building because the girls were not wearing...