In a message dated 3/12/1999 5:30:08 PM Eastern Standard Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
<< I have recently studied this discourse between the years of 1994 and 1998)
has in general, subsumed all the diverse interpretations, strands and
varieties of Islam under this "Taliban model" of Islam. >>
You, I would take a mission statement from...
All too often for men in islam, they take advantage of women who are not able
to read the text for themselves, then these men, chauvinistic imams make their
own "analysis" of what applies to women in Islam. A good portion of
challenging the oppression of women comes down to "where does it say that" -
many times men cannot say where, but they just say it is well known, or you
have to be wrong, or that is what they were taught.
I strongly advocate for muslim women to read the text themselves, even for
young girls to be raised with a clear reading so that they are educated to
understand such things as how they were not meant to be uneducated, that this
is not in accordance with islam.
One older woman from Somalia gave me a very serious talk about how when her
husband came to her, when she was much younger, with his intent to take a
second wife. He saw it as a mark of wealth, prestige to be able to do so. This
woman told me that instead of weeping and wailing, she immediately stopped her
market work, ending her income contribution to the family, required him to
escort her everywhere she went, and other things, basically, she went 'limp"
as she said. She wanted him to feel the brunt of having a wife, and as she
expected he began to think harder about having another one of these women to
"take care of" - and he ended up not getting another wife, and indeed she said
became a better husband because he appreciate her contributions to the family,
her tactical skill and in the conversation they had about the issue, she
educated him to new views on women.
This doesn't work with all muslim men, as feminism doesn't stick with all
western men. However, the ability of a woman to appeal to an imam, to cite the
religious texts, gives her a strength that she can use - and this needs to be
reinforced by the society. As noted, it is the systems of political
oppression, and traditional chauvinism that influences interpretation for the
negative towards women and that ignores the rights of women which already
exist.
I attended a lecture two years ago at the kuwaiti mission to the un, on
shari'a and medical ethics. The speaker was an esteemed muslim male
gynecologist, who also worked in the arenas of shari'a - the audience was all
muslim women from all over the muslim world, and one or two white
american/non-muslim women. He wonderfully articulated a variety of issus from
invitro fertilization, abortion, contraception, organ transplants, blood
donation, receiving donated blood and when he touched upon the topic of
polygamy re: invitro fertilization, women began to ask in several languages
for pens and paper. I am sure that many men got an earful when those women got
home - and those were highly potent "feminist" muslim women when they left.
The doctor explained it thoroughly, and so exactingly drawing from the texts,
that men have no rational reasoning to hide behind. Usually they run to the
flimsy - "well we have that right, so we can take it" - and this is used by
only the most chauvinistic men who really dance on the head of the pin to
avoid saying directly that they will do whatever they want to do regardless of
Islam. Both males and females need to be educated to overcome such flaws in
their respect for women - as girls are often thoroughly raised to believe such
things, and they attempt to enforce them on other women.
A major obstacle to work within islamic countries is the approach that posits
that islam must be rejected, to have human rights, to have justice for women.
This is a poor reasoning and doesn't result in successful advances on women's
issues - too often the attempt is more than just a humanitarian effort, but an
effort to christianize a population. Such projects fail and only antagonize
people. A few years ago a moroccan (run by moroccan women) went to address a
problem where foreign ngos, christian ngos had failed - to get rural girls in
the area to school. The foreign ngos felt that islam was against religion, so
they fought on that level. The moroccan ngo understand what the actual case
was - there weren't really any rural schools so girls had to go into the city,
alone often, and fathers and mothers didn't want their daughters exposed to
this environment (neither would I) they were especially wary of the foreign
male tourists, approaching young girls who are alone and naive. The moroccan
ngo simply set up rural schools, parents were comfortable, and let their girls
go to school. The ngo supported their task with islamic texts supporting
education.
A simple solution which required only a coherent paradigm on the situation. No
magic bullets of liberation needed.
Nicole
