Women

Muslims argue that Islam recognizes the different functions of men and women, honors this while the Wests approach to gender is UNNATURAL. All Muslims point out that the Quran guarantees the following: Quran guarantees right to inherit (lesser share but male duty to care for females of family). Right to work and to keep earnings (Q 4: 32). Keeps bride price - balance payable if divorced.

And women are Spiritually equal with men (33: 35) Can divorce via courts on certain conditions that can be included in marriage contract (4: 128). However, 4: 3 men can marry up to four wives/some interpret as an absolute right/others as only applicable in particular circumstances pointing out that verses such as 4: 1 appear to affirm monogamy as ordained by God.

Problematic verses: As witnesses, two needed for one man. Women, it is said, were not used to public affairs and might be intimidated or confused. (2: 28) Has been justified on grounds that women are emotional, suffer memory loss due to menstruation (!!!) etc. Has also been cited to justify barring women from serving as judges.

But Pakistan has appointed women High Court judges, Majida Rizvi and Khalida Rashid Khan. Others question this interpretation pointing out that the verse does not call for two women witnesses but for one woman to witness and one to remind her.

Quran 4: 34 men are in charge of women: has been used to justify male superiority but can be interpreted to charge men with the task of physical protection. Wadud, Amina. 1999. Quran and woman: rereading the sacred text from a woman's perspective. New York: Oxford University Press. Saeed, Abdullah. 2008. The Quran: an introduction. London: Routledge.

Aminah Wadud rejects the contention that either daraja at 2: 228 or this verse subordinates women to men. She applies maintenance to refer to husbands responsibilities to care for their wives during pregnancy and child-rearing, which should be a partnership. This, she says, is linked with our trusteeship of the earth (73-4.) Saeed (2008) uses different translations of 4: 34 to illustrate how a translators views influence their choice of words. 4: 34 says that if wives refuse to consent to sexual intercourse, husbands can lightly beat them (idribuhunna). ( Some translate as beat. Others annotate traditions limiting this to using a folded-up handkerchief or a toothbrush (131). Or, it can mean to separate from as at 57: 13, where a Wall (faduriba) separates the redeemed from the damned. Wadud argues that Islam prohibits wife-beating of any description. Daraba does not necessarily indicate force or violence but can mean striking out in a new direction. In

this view, she says, instead of permitting wife-beating, which may have been a preIslamic practice the verse actually condemns it (76).

Rape Not mentioned in Quran but traditionally covered under Shariah as similar to adultery (zina). Four witnesses required for successful prosecution (Q24: 13). Misapplication of law finds rape victims guilty of adultery when they cannot produce four witnesses. However, there are hadith of Muhammad relying solely on the victims testimony without any witnesses (Hashmi: 51). Women do not have to attend Friday prayers. Modesty of dress for men and women. Veiling (hijab) and Seclusion (Purdah) (see Q 33: 53 & 33: 59) originally only for the Mothers of the Believers.

Some Muslim states enforce dress code and segregation (for both genders) through MUTAWEEN ie. Unrelated women and men seen together in public can be arrested.

(Taliban: men without beards break the code). Tenth century hijab/segregation- extended to all women. Early women: fought, contributed to collection of hadith/later, increasing patriarchal society increasing patriarchal society protected its women.

Texts/law were interpreted by men. One hadith that no society prospers that entrusts its affairs to a women, cited as a conversation stopper. Fatima Mernissi argues that this is a LATE hadith, attributed like other misogynist traditions to a suspect narrator.

Other hadith Muhammad saw more women than men in hell; similar critique (see Bennett, p 141). Ahmed: Expansion = slaves = concubines = woman sexual object.

Q4: 3 was used to justify unlimited concubinage but this reading has been refuted by alternative renderings of the word arguing that those whom your right hand possesses (Ma malakat aymanukum) either includes concubines among the four or counts those of the right hand as spouses

SEE: Leila Ahmed: Women and Gender in Islam, 1992 (Yale University Press) And Fatima Mernissi: Women and Islam (1987) (Basil Blackwell) Leila Ahmeds autobiography, A Border Passage: From Cairo To America: a womans journey (1999) (Farrar, Strauss and Giroux) A MUST READ READ READ READ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "The women had their own understanding of Islam different from mens Islam, official Islam Islam, as I got it from them, was gentle, generous, pacifist, inclusive, somehow mystical of inner things . So there are two quite different Islams, an Islam that is in some sense a womens Islam and an official, textual Islam, a mens Islam" pp 121 - 123.

Women did not have a man trained in the orthodox (male) literary heritage of Islam telling them week by week and month by month what it meant to be a Muslim, what the correct interpretation is Rather, they figured things out for themselves nor did they believe that the sheikhs had an understanding of Islam superior to theirs p 124. Bennett Muslims and Modernity page 132 four positions. Humanist eg Taslima Nasrin, Haidah Moghissi. Feminist eg Mernissi, Wadud, Ahmed. Centrist Akbar Ahmed (Paradise Lies at the Feet of the Mother). Conservative: Abul Ala Mawdudi; Gamal A Badawi.

Islamists tend to argue that women cannot serve in senior posts/ that they should remain in the home, but there is nothing in the Quran that disqualifies women from ruling and the Queen of Sheba is glorified (Hashmi: 45).

And women have led Muslim states: Megawati Sukarnoputri President of Indonesia (2001- 2004) Benazir Bhutto PM of Pakistan (1988-90; 93-96) Khaleda Zia, PM of Bangladesh (1991-1996; 2001-2006. Sheikh Hasina, PM of Bangladesh 96-2001; 2009 Tansu Ciler, PM of Turkey 1993-6.

(Hasmi, Taj. Women and Islam in Bangaldesh. London: Routledge, 2000.)