Islam and Women

1. Islam and Women

2. Women in Pre-Islamic Near East • Life was Rough… according to ‘law’ • Hammurabi’s law code (1752 BCE: disobedient women get teeth knocked out (but disobedient son get hands cut off) • Middle Assyrian Laws: wife who gives away husbands possessions gets ear cut off; if she hits him in the groin (and equipment damaged, she loses a finger) • Later Assyrian law codes include women being pawned for debt • But consistently in NE law, rape/unauthorized deflowering of free-woman requires the man be killed, woman goes free • Veil tied to class: • Assyrian law forbids slave women and harlots from wearing veil; noble women must cover head • Byzantine upper class houses had harem set up, even the Empress Irene veiled herself (including hands) • Institutionalized Sexual Jealousy/Honor • Middle Assyrian law codes prescribe flogging and hard labor for baseless sexual slander (yo mama jokes out of the question) • Egyptian king and medicinal lack of virgins

3. Women, Sex and Islamicate Civ. • Sex = penetration and ownership  Sex is about power. Homo- or Heterosexual, penetrator is powerful, penetratee is dominated • Women as Honor: • Pre-Islamic Arabia: ‘aqila = ‘prized possession’ • Islamic Civ.: ghira/rashk = ‘sexual jealousy’ • Women as Danger • Women as unreasonable, governed by desire (“their brains are in their $^#*&#” = false hadith) • Female sexuality is what makes men lose control • Female sexuality is unquenchable (woman & donkey)  threat to husbands/males’ honor  female circumcision to reduce woman’s ‘hotness’ • Female Circumcision?

4. Women as Actors in Islamic Civ. • Early/Pre-Islamic dynamos: Khadija, Aisha, Umm Fadl… is this a dying breed? • Mother of the Believers: “The Prophet is closer to the Believers than their own selves, and his wives are their mothers. Blood-relations among each other have closer personal ties, in the Decree of Allah, than (the Brotherhood of) Believers and Emigrants: nevertheless do ye what is just to your closest friends: such is the writing in the Decree (of Allah).” Quran 33:6 • Hadith Transmitters in early period and again after the 1000’s CE - today • Legal Scholars: behind closed doors… • Rulers? Shajarat al-Durr “Queen of the Muslims” in 1250’s in Egypt • Power behind the throne: ex. the “Sultanate of the Women” in 16oo’s Ottoman Empire

5. Women and the Quran • Lo! men who surrender unto God, and women who surrender, and men who believe and women who believe, and men who obey and women who obey, and men who speak the truth and women who speak the truth, and men who persevere (in righteousness) and women who persevere, and men who are humble and women who are humble, and men who give alms and women who give alms, and men who fast and women who fast, and men who guard their modesty and women who guard (their modesty), and men who remember God much and women who remember - God hath prepared for them forgiveness and a vast reward.” • “Tell the believers to lower their gaze and guard their sexuality, this is more pure for them, and God is most knowing of what you do. Tell the female believers to lower their gaze, guard their sexuality and not make evident their beauty except what shows [normally]. And instruct them to cast their veils over their upper chests and not to make evident their beauty except to their lords, their fathers or the fathers of their lords, their sons, their nephews, their women or slaves or male servants not of sexual ability or children not yet of age. And instruct them not to move their legs such that what beauty of theirs that is hidden is known. And seek God’s forgiveness all O you believers so that you may prosper.” (24:31) • “Men are responsible for women (qawwamun ‘ala) due to that by which God has granted favor to some over others, and by what they (men?) have spent from their wealth. So righteous women are obedient, guarding in secret what God has guarded. And those women whose disobedience you fear, admonish them, then leave their beds, then scourge them. If they obey you, seek not a way against them, indeed God is most lofty, great (4:34) • Surat al-Ahzab… • “And from His signs is that He created for you mates from among you to dwell in them in peace, and He created love and mercy between you. Indeed in that there are signs for those who reflect.” (30:21) • Divorce and Marriage by ‘al-ma’ruf’ = what is ‘known’ / right

6. Women and Islamic Law – Traditional Narrative • Women are equal to men before God – but separate notions of nudity (but free/slave distinction remains) • Women are under the care/supervision of men (mahram = male guardian)  separate inheritance laws • Marriage is Contractual arrangement between woman and man • ‘Rights’ and ‘obligations’ not to be seen as ‘best’ possible situation. Rather, ‘fiqh’ is for worst possible cases… sexual rights • Violation of contract is grounds for divorce; men can divorce at any time; women can ask for divorce or forfeit dowry • Women’s Sphere is separate from Men’s • Twice as many women needed for court testimony in financial matters • Female Circumcision: al-sareeh ghayr saheeh wa al-saheeh ghayr sareeh… limited is recommended in most Sunni schools, although today muftis say it’s prohibited unless done by a skilled doctor

7. Modernity and European Feminism 1850’s onwards sees Ottoman/Egyptian contact with Europe: • Elites vacation in Europe, French becomes language of the harem 1860’s British travelers in upper Egypt notice that Xian women more fastidious about veil than Muslims 1899 lawyer Qasim Amin writes book the ‘Liberation of Women’ saying that veiling not required in Islam Huda al-Sharawi (d. 1947)& Saiza Nabrawi create Egyptian Feminist Union, attend 1923 Women’s conference in Rome. Upon return they remove their face-veils. Gender/Women Issues tied to power and thus to concerns about Colonialism, Cultural Authenticity (Amin’s book as Anti Egyptian)

8. Modernist / Islamist Reading • Generally embraces traditional Islamic law, but with more emphasis on women’s rights to education • Most clearly seen in the writings of Sayyid Qutb (d. 1966), Miryam al-Jameela, Muhammad Asad • Complementarity of men and women: Muslim family designed for men and women to have different functions; men earn $, women raise family (what about dual-income?) (Enlightenment European argument) • Islamic Law is Liberation: • Hijab allows women to be judged by personality and not beauty

9. Progressive Reading • Thematic vs. Traditional Exegesis (same as Jihad) • Not Male authored • ‘Spirit’ of the Quran as opposed to details of Islamic law • Ex. Quran ‘universalizes’ the privilege of modesty for women in Jahiliyya society • There is no set cultural context/interpretive lens for the Quran because it is universal • Gender distinctions exist, but they have different meanings in different times • Ex. 4:34: men’s ‘responsibility’ is based on conditions of verse, ex. $; women’s court testimony too

10. Further Reading • Women in Muslim Unconscious by Fatima Sabbah (1984) • Sexuality and Eroticism amongst Males in Moslem Societies • Women Gender and Social Change (ed. Haddad & Esposito)