|
Arab Waman in religion and society
Hossain Awdat
Introduction
My sole
sister among four brothers rejected to take her share of
inheritance after the death of my father, in spite of my brothers'
insistence. She stuck to that and hindered the distribution of the
inheritance for more than twenty years. Her argument was that it was a
shame on her to take a share of her father's inheritance from her male
brothers, because they, as she believed, were more deserving, and that
God had satisfied her and her husband with what he had endowed them,
though, in reality, she and her husband were the poorest of us and in
bad need for the inheritance, given the fact that it was an agricultural
land and they were the only ones living in the village, while we all did
not.
What my
sister had not said frankly is that she was afraid of being denounced by
the people of the village, she was afraid of breaching the traditions
and customs. She thought that it would be better for her not take her
share of the inheritance in order to keep her brothers as immaterial and
material help, when needed, against the injustices that she might
experience.
This is not
an exceptional attitude in Arab and Islamic countries, particularly in
rural areas. It is the result of hundreds or thousands of years of
practicing traditions, values and habits imposed by the Arab and Arab
Islamic societies' development and the impact of adjacent societies'
habits and traditions on them. It is, also, the result of the male
society's and the ruling classes' injustice for long ages, where women
were always looked at as merchandises that could be sold and purchased,
and as property and slaves of their husbands, as Hojat el-Islam Abu
Hamid al-Ghazali thought in the 11th Gregorian century.
The reality
of Arab Muslim women today is the result of values that have been
accumulating and enhancing themselves since pre-Islam until now, and the
collaboration of the ruling classes' interests, men, philosophers,
theologists and intellectuals, who stereotyped women in marginal roles
in society, considering them as objects for men to satisfy their sexual
desires and tendency to dominate, exploit and suppress women.
Women
throughout the history have been subject to doubled injustice; the
economic, social, and cultural injustice, as well as the exploitation
and alienation applied to lower classes and to society as a whole, on
one hand, and the direct injustice by men who managed through those
circumstances to be the absolute and obeyed masters who enjoyed all
rights, while women assumed all duties, on the other hand. Thus, the
history of women became actually the history of women oppression, as
Bible said. During the eras of history, society found (moral) and legal
justifications to oppress women, who once were the devils or sisters of
the Satan, and once the wicked trustless seducers, and other attributes
that gave the men and the society excuses to oppress, marginalize,
exploit and even enslave women.
Many
attributes and many injustices…
From the
Mesopotamian women, who would be choked when there was a siege not to
consume what the people had of food, to the Persian whom angles did not
count among the graces shown to humankind, to the Indian who were
created of slips and fragments scattered from the earlier creation
process, to the Jewish who were worst than death according to the
Exodus, to Christian who were asked to obey their husbands the same way
they obey God, to the Muslim women whom the faqihs almost asked
to kowtow to their husbands (the woman who dies and her husband is
pleased of her will enter the Paradise). Here and there, women were
under slavery, humiliation and injustice, one generation after another.
At their
early emergence, religions tried to save women, but exegetes,
interpreters and theologists attacked the message of religions and drove
women back to their former situations through crocked interpretations
and wrong exegesis of religion, in order to keep women under the
awfulness of strikes, oppression and alienation.
In the 19th
century, the Arab renaissance people, both liberals and Islamists,
became aware of women's bad situation, and the impossibility of society
salvation without women's salvation. Their rhetoric tried to remove some
of the injustice against women, but their trials became almost cries in
the emptiness with the hesitation and backwardness of their heirs, who
held their banners later on. Although women's case occupied only a small
margin on the renaissance
people' platforms and never been a matter of priority for them, it,
also, remained marginal in the literature of the bourgeois intellectuals
and progressive movements, and even of the women's movement. Their
rhetoric has not gone beyond what was imposed by the reality of
evolution to improve women's conditions. A reality without which, Arab
women perhaps would have been now as they have been tens of years ago.
Both liberal
and fundamental renaissance people talked about women's importance and
role in family and society, and called for women education and some
other rights. They, also, revealed the fakeness associated with Islam's
attitude to women due to theologists' opinions, exegesis and
interpretation, but their rhetoric remained under the ceiling of
customs, traditions and cultural and social inheritance, and never
passed the modern age step.
Bourgeois,
national and progressive rhetoric developed to include most political,
economic and social life aspects, save regarding women's issue, where it
remained conservative in general, on one hand, and gave women only small
margin, on the other hand. The Arab constitutions, in the countries
where nationalists and progressives became in power, made a step forward
regarding women's issue, but the personal status laws, which are the
standard in practice, remained unchanged and conservative in
contradiction with the progressives' orientations and the constitutions
of the countries that they held power in.
This book
provides a brief historical overview of attitudes to women through the
religions' attitudes, as religions have been the society's ideology, and
religions' instructions have been the bases of society's practices,
traditions and values. It, also, highlights the exaggerations associated
with theologists' exegeses and interpretation of the holy text, and how
they have distorted and violated it to fit their opinions and desires.
The book,
particularly, indicates the attitude to women's issue since the early
renaissance age until now:
Attitude of
the liberal intellectuals in the second half of the 19th
century, who studied the European civilization and concepts and values
thereof and the behavior of its societies, and realized the importance
of women and their role in those societies' development.
Attitude of
the pioneers with Islamic background who tried to purify Qur'an
instructions of the impurities caused by exegesis and interpretation.
Attitude of
women's movements at the beginning of the 20th century, and
the pioneer women who fought for all or some of women's rights.
The book
also views the extremist religious currents' opinions in the first half
of the 20th century, and their efforts to drive women back to
the dark ages, seclusion and veil, and the opinions of the other
enlightened contemporary currents which tried to develop the opinions of
Mohamed Abdo and Qassem Ameen in order to move women's issue one step
forward.
Finally, the
book, views the attitudes of the Pan-Arab and progressive parties and
currents and their rhetoric which remained general, vague and without
platforms.
The book is
a historical review in principle, in which I tried to cover briefly the
women-related opinions in each stage of our history. I added some
explanation, analysis and critique which is intended to complete the
review without expansion, taking care of reader's time and effort, on
one hand, and paying attention not to seize the reader's opinion, on the
other hand, will full confidence that readers are capable, if they had
the basic information, to set their opinions with no temptation from
others.
It is my
duty to thank everyone who participated in the publishing of this book,
expressing my gratitude to them all, hoping that this book will be
useful to the reader.
Author
Chapter
VIII
Women in
the Renaissance Literature of the 19th Century
God has
endowed the woman with the same mental, literary and moral capabilities
as man. She enjoys good judgment, memory and learning/teaching skills.
God would never bestow these talents and then block her from using them.
Ahmad Fares
al-Shidiyaq
Men and
women are equal in rights, actions, person, senses and intellect. Men
who try, through tyrannizing women, to become masters at home have
simply been born slave to others.
Mohamed Abdo
… in the
Orient, women are slaves to men and men are slave to government.
Governments based on tyranny would never try to ensure women's rights
and freedom.
Qassem Ameen
Until the
early 1900s, almost all Arab countries were to some extent under the
Turkish (Ottoman) feudal rule with some specificity for Maghreb
countries which had fallen under the French colonialism before that
date. The Ottoman rule was direct in certain countries (like Bilad
al-Sham) and indirect in some others (like Egypt) but dependence on the
Acetana was almost general.
The eve of
the 19th century witnessed many important events which shook
the region, upset its tranquility and spurred its stagnation generating
a shock in its development process and planting the first seeds of the
future overwhelming change. Among those event was the French campaign in
Egypt in the late 1700s; monopolization of power by Mohamed Ali Basha in
Egypt; and the European interference in the Arab orient affairs
especially Bilad al-Sham, which took different shapes including
political interference, religious missions and building school and
universities.
In spite of
the rapid military failure, the French interference in Egypt was not
merely a military campaign. This interference shook the recession of the
Egyptian society through scientific and social missions which made the
local people aware of what was going on outside Egypt and of the
scientific progress already achieved in Europe.
Soon after
the French campaign, Mohamed Ali Basha was inaugurated as ruler (Wali)
of Egypt then became a sole effective governor after eradicating the
Mamaleek in a well-known pogrom. Mohamed Ali established comprehensive
development moving the country strides forward. He modernized the state
administration, opened and generalized schools, built universities, sent
study missions to Europe (especially France), translated different
scientific, literary and cultural books already published in Europe,
focused on different branches of science, modernized the army and fleet
and expanded the harbors, build bridges on the Nile and dug channels to
benefit from its water and modernized agriculture.
When he
became confident of Egypt strengths, Mohamed Ali tried to drive the
Ottomans out of Hejaz and al-Sham through mobilizing armies and almost
managed to realize this objective were it not for the Europeans and
Ottomans concern against any mighty Arab state. However, Egypt
renaissance under Mohamed Ali's rule as well as his military campaigns
had direct and considerable impact on the political, economic and social
life in both al-Sham (ruled for 14 years by his son Ibrahim who tried to
launch a development process similar to that of Egypt) and the Arab
Peninsula.
In al Sham
the Ottoman had established a tyrannical feudal government
where the country suffered much from the despotism of Walis state
employees and tax comptrollers. Illiteracy was overwhelming and schools
were seldom and teaching in Turkish language and there were no private
schools. Culture was stagnant, and poverty, backwardness and regional,
religious and sectarian seclusion is the main aspect in society. The
influence of European Renaissance had reached only a few individuals or
parts of certain sects in major cities.
However, the
most important and influential event was the coming of the Egyptian army
led by Ibrahim Basha during the first half of the 19th
century. Ibrahim Basha drove the Ottomans out of Bilad al-Sham and
reshaped the political alliances. He opened schools and promoted
education, stressed the freedom of belief and respect of different
religions and sects, triggered the process of renewing and modernizing
the Arabic culture and facilitated the entrance of European intellectual
trends with their new concepts and values.
Another
significant development in al-Sham was the European attempts to
interfere in the region affairs under different excuses and arguments:
to protect the minorities or religious interests; enforce specific
settlements for certain geographic areas or sectarian minorities. A core
aspect of this interference was the European missions which was
accompanied with the establishment of universities (St. Joseph
University, American University) and schools (which spread in most main
cities and introduced modern curricula), the use of printers,
publication of newspapers, the transfer of the European knowledge. This
made the Arab societies aware of the European principles of freedom,
equality, justice, renaissance, evolution and renovation, which
triggered the movement of the Arab Renaissance.
The first
renaissance pioneers called for linguistic and religious renovation,
nationalistic wakeup and, most importantly in our context, for a new
attitude toward women. They called for ending the unjust treatment which
deteriorated the women's situations and actually stopped their
contribution to social life and to making the future of the nation.
Women were confined to home as a part of the Hareem structure. That is
why the thoughts of those pioneers were comparatively innovative in a
society where the mere thinking of gender equality was a rebellion
against the collective opinion if not blasphemy or heterodoxy. And that
is why the today' axiomatic slogan of women education was a sublime
objective and a big demand which needed hard struggle and huge efforts
especially because it was unacceptable by the general social traditions.
Likewise, the demand of women employment in workplaces beside men not to
mention polygamy, divorce and the men's guardianship right on women.
During the
second half of the 19th century there emerged two renaissance
currents regarding the women's rights. The first was the liberal current
which consisted of intellectuals who had studied in Europe or visited it
and were acquainted with the European lifestyle and received the
principles of the French revolution (freedom, equality, justice,
education, awakening, renovation and separation between religion and
politics). Among those pioneers we have: Rifa'a Rafé'
Al Tahtawi, kheiruddin al-Tounisi, Ahmad Fares al-Shidiyaq, Butros al-Bustani,
Shibly Shmayyel, Fransis Marrash, Farah Anton, Adib Ishaq and others.
The second current called for religious renovation through a new concept
of religion based on a sound comprehension of Islam. The most
outstanding figures of this current include: Rifa'a Rafé'
Al Tahtawi, Jamal Eddin al_afghani, Mohamed Abdo, Mustapha Lutfi al-Manfalouti,
Abdul Rahman al-Kawakibi and others.
The liberal
Arab (enlightened) intellectuals paid attention to the women problem;
they constituted the seed of the Arab bourgeoisie which grew later and
assumed power in a number of Arab countries at the beginning of the 20th
century. Those enlightened were in general supporters to the idea of
imitating Europe and benefiting from its cultural and civilizational
renaissance. They called for reforms in the Arab societies based on the
principles of justice, equality, personal freedom, intellect, separation
between religion and politics and separation of powers. They supported
the called education and enlightenment of women to help them improve
management of their homes and bringing-up of their children and keep up
with the men's talks and ideas.
However,
these pioneers in general failed to tackle the core issues such as
women's participation in social activities, equality, guardianship,
polygamy and divorce, not to mention their failure in ending unjust
treatment. The level of development during the second half of the 19th
century as well as the prevailing values and socio-economic conditions
would not have allowed more than calling for women education. On the
other hand, the priority for those intellectuals was the political
issues including freedoms, justice and liberation; they could only look
at the women's problems as a secondary issue. Yet, they were the first
to trigger the process of women liberation.
Rifa'a Al
Tahtawi
was among the first intellectuals who paid early attention to the
women's role in renaissance in general and to injustice against women
since he had lived in France and realized the importance of such a role
in society. He also witnessed the tragedy of oriental women and knew how
much resources were missing because of women isolation and
marginalization. Tahtawi thought the first and urgent step was to
educate women then allow them to work and meet with men.
In 1873,
Tahtawi published his famous book "Reliable Guide to Bringing up Girls
and Boys" which called not only for gender equality in education but for
mixed schools as well because they enable the girls to better understand
the society and life and help her know the other sex and facilitate the
marriage, which was the natural end of relations between the two sexes.
Tahtawi maintained that teaching the girl how to read, write and learn
mathematics and grammar would raise her awareness and cultural level,
enable her to provide opinion in personal and social matters, strengthen
her position in the men's eyes and protect her from "perish in the
precipice of illusions and violence and turn her from ignorance into an
educated woman".
Tahtawi also
called for the right of women, especially educated women, to work
outside home, because work would "protect the woman and bring her closer
to virtue. If male unemployment is denounced, female unemployment is big
shame". He supported the elimination of hijab and called for putting an
end to women's house confinement and allowing them the chance to meet
with men.
Tahtawi had
realized that the rules applied on women in the Arab countries were
human-made and had nothing to do with the right Islam. He played an
important role in opening modern schools in general and female schools
in particular. He wrote: "we should try our best educating boys and
girls together. Girls will learn reading, writing, counting and others,
which will strengthen their intellect and values and enable them to
share talks and opinion with men. The latter will show more respect and
more love towards them and this will enable women to practice the same
jobs as men within their capacities (they will do whatever work they are
able to endure) and will reduce unemployment among women. Work will keep
women away from the vice and get them closer to the virtue. If male
unemployment is denounced, female unemployment is big shame".
kheiruddin
al-Tounisi (1800-1890) was a minister in Tunisia then a Great Sadr in
Acetana who tried to adjust the situations in the Islamic countries. He
published a magazine in Tunisia, which frequently wrote about women, the
disastrous effect of their ignorance and the necessity to educate women
at least in primary schools to help them become good housewives and
typical child educators. However, the magazine used to criticize the
European countries fro granting women "too much freedom" and the
ultimate end of Al-Tounisi's thoughts was the necessity to enroll girls
at schools in an attempt not to oppose the objective conditions of his
era.
Ahmad Fares
Al Shidiyaq (1804-1887) lived in Lebanon, Tunisia and Acetana. As a
writer and journalist, he demanded to make the women's conditions in
Tunisia more human. He talked about the "women's virtues and vices and
the role of educating women in realizing progress", because improving
their situations is a great action and their education will help them
manage their homes and bring up their children. Al Shidiyaq shed light
on the differences between western and eastern women, considering that
the stability of western societies was based on two pillars: man and
woman, while the eastern society was lame and staggering in its attempt
to develop because of the inherent ignorance of woman though God has
endowed the woman with "the same mental, literary and moral capabilities
as man. She enjoys good judgment, memory and learning/teaching skills.
God would never bestow these talents and then block her from using them".
Al-Shidiyaq, like Al-Tounisi, thought that the core problem is the woman
education and refinement and he did not ask for more.
Butros Al-Bustani
(1819-1883), the writer, journalist and author, was among the first
enlightened Arabs who realized the dimension of the women issue and
deeply believed in the necessity to change their conditions. During a
lecture in 1849, he highlighted the necessity to "promote the women's
interest in building knowledge that would enhance their position. They
will be able to make men change their situations and save them from
loss",
and this was considered a must for developing the public as a whole. In
1869, he wrote: "the Western Europe history shows that the starting
point for the European civil success and progress was when the woman
began to assume a better position in the society which has been
reflected in the care to educate women".
According to
Al-Bustani, women should in general learn everything necessary to
complete their specific duties easily, informedly, smoothly and wisely
and to turn them into members in a civil society … the benefit of
education is that it develop the women's mental capacity, refine them,
awaken and revive their conscience, straighten their will and literary
compassions and regulate their behaviour and demeanour".
He said women are not for flirtation and their backwardness was because
of depriving them knowledge. Reforming the world starts with reforming
the woman; she is the mistress of the universe. Al-Bustani called for
teaching women with the basics of religion, and warned women against
being haughty or trying to surpass the man's position.
Fransis
Marrash (1836-1873) was a physician, writer and journalist from Aleppo
who studied in France. He undoubtedly was enlightened but a little bit
more conservative as regards women renaissance. He called for educating
women but thought that such education should be limited to reading,
writing, counting and some science. Moreover, he thought that "it is not
odd to limit women education to primary stage" since deeper knowledge
would lead to "undesirable" results because it would awaken the women
inclination to freedom and willingness to "act as the men and hence
neglect her household duties and children, and may even think of being
superior to men".
Worth mentioning here, Mariana Marrash, Fransis' sister was a writer,
journalist and novelist who encouraged women to write and tried to
promote this talent in them.
Farah Antoun
(1874-1922) was a writer, novelist and journalist. He lived in Lebanon,
Egypt and America. Being among the first Arab intellectuals to call for
separation between religion and politics, Antoun underlined the
necessity to introduce the principles of freedom, justice and equality.
He thought that reforming the social structure could only be achieved
through educating women which is more important than educating men.
However,
Antoun thought that the woman was dedicated for household and her
mission was only to "bring up children, do housekeeping work and acting
as the man's companion" as he wrote in Al-Hilal magazine. According to
him, the woman was born to be a wife and mother "and it is only for this
mission she was born not for anything else".
The family system was build on the basis of male authority because he is
the home manager. The woman should obey him; otherwise, the family would
collapse. Yet, Antoun maintained that women were "the queens of the
universe and fragrance of existence who hold the future of the nations
and crises of the peoples in their hands because they are the
governesses of generations and builders of men".
In brief,
the ultimate issue of the liberal enlightened men of the 19th
century was "woman education and refinement". They thought this was
necessary for the development of the whole society and it was sufficient
for the woman. Apart from some rhetoric, they did not ask for more.
However, it is unjust to underestimate such a demand under those
conditions where all people (men and women) were lacking education and
women were isolated in their houses not able to go out unless for an
emergency. In a society governed by oriental despotism, feudal rule,
social and cultural backwardness, Harem phenomenon, intellectual
degeneration, and women subjugation in terms of rights and as a human
being, such ideas were really enlightening and even revolutionary. They
were undoubtedly a step forward that leveled the ground for the
intellectuals of the late 1800s and early 1900s to realize great strides
toward women's rights and freedoms.
The second
enlightenment current had an Islamic background. Its pioneers were
innovators and renaissance supporters who called for a new understanding
of Islam which would remove all deformation, myths and heresies and make
Islam the right religion for every time and place. They tried to restore
the Moslems' right of discretion and interpretation to help them
understand their religion using contemporary scientific and epistemic
tools. They refrained from accepting everything brought by ancestors
building on their ability to judge and provided interpretation: "we are
men and they are men" Mohamed Abdo and his teacher Jamal Eddin
Al-Afghani would say.
Regarding
women issues, they claimed that the right Islam would not admits the
situation of women in their time in terms of laws and jurisprudence and
relevant applications. They called for a new attitude and new laws that
would promote the woman's position, establish her rights and create
conductive condition for her role in the family and society.
Major issues
tackled by the religious enlightenment current were: women education and
refinement; women employment, Hijab, home isolation, limiting polygamy
with certain conditions and reducing divorce. The reference background
to start from was Islam and the Sunnah in addition to their judgment in
interpreting them.
The great
renaissance figure, Jamal Eddin Al-Afghani dealt with women problems as
a secondary issue, his main concern being the Moslems' awakening and
development and the attempt to establish a sound understanding of Islam
after removing all falsity marring the religion. He called for women
education and putting an end to their isolation. Moreover, he called for
equality with men in the light of the Qur'an rules and did not object
the removal of Hijab provided this would not lead to moral
deterioration. Jamal Eddin Al-Afghani seemed to share women related
ideas with his student Mohamed Abdo.
Sheikh
Mohamed Abdo
dealt with the women's issues with care and responsibility. He spared no
effort in supporting such issues and benefited from his position as a
judge, chancellor and mufti to learn more about them. He made many
fatwas which reflected his high understanding. He had unquestionable
impact on his student Qassem Ameen who took the women's issue as a core
objective and main obsession.
Mohamed Abdo
was convicted that most woman-related rules, legislation and traditions
working in the name of Islam needed change because they were not valid
either in terms of religious reference or in terms of their relevance to
social needs. He wrote articles in the press (he was for a while the
editor-in-chief of Al-Muqtataf magazine) supporting his ideas. Later, he
issued many fatwas that set the legal and jurisdiction framework for
those ideas, which had great influence during his life and after his
death.
Sheikh
Mohamed Abdo maintained that "men and women are equal in rights,
actions, person, senses and intellect. Men who try, through tyrannizing
women, to become masters at home have simply been born slave to others".
He called for educating women similarly to men because "the lack of
education has stuffed women's brains with superstitions and their talk
with trifles except for a few of them who can be numbered in one
minute". He proposed the establishment of women associations focusing on
female education and the opening of new schools for this purpose.
Sheikh
Mohamed Abdo claimed that Islam gives women the right to request divorce
if abandoned without legitimate reason and also in the case of assault,
insult and unsolvable conflict. He asked the divorce decision to be in
the hands of the judge not the husband. The judge should make the
husband aware of the divorce risks and harm and advise him to change his
mind leaving a delay of one week during which two arbitrators from the
wife's side and two others from the husband's side try reconciliation.
Only in case of failure, the judge will decide the divorce and confirm
it officially. To know the importance of such an opinion we should
remember that divorce at that time was within the man' power and it
needed no reasons to be effected.
Mohamed Abdo
called for preventing polygamy unless an absolute necessity. He
explained this necessity as the wife's sterility definitely. He argued
that the Sharia put equity among wives as a precondition to polygamy and
equity is almost impossible. He claimed that the Sharia permission is
conditioned that the man should be sure he will be able to ensure
equity; otherwise, he should marry only one woman. "they must marry only
one wife if they are not able to ensure equity.. or be aware what their
legal obligation are in terms of equity before marrying more than one
wife",
given that absolute equity is a precondition stipulated by the Qur'an
and that equity is very rare and cannot be taken as a rule. On the other
hand, polygamy will inevitablely cause harm to women and hence rivalry
among children. Building on this, the ruler or scholar (religious man)
can prevent polygamy completely.. unless the wife is sterile; here, the
man can be permitted by the judge to marry another woman".
Qassem Ameen
took the banner from his teacher and adopted the women's issue with full
responsibility and unprecedented dedication. He called for equality
between men and women and that women should have their rights within the
Qur'anic teachings. He wrote two books in this regard: 1) Woman
Liberation which contained Ameen's ideas, aspirations and vision 2) The
New Woman which was a refinement of the ideas of the first book in
addition to in-depth enlightening approach. The two books are still
published in different Arab countries and constitute a reference for
researchers in several woman-related areas.
Below there
is a detailed presentation of Ameen's ideas which have had a deep impact
on the situations of Arab women and their role in the society.
Qassem Ameen
claimed that the reason of backwardness was the wrong interpretation of
religious rules, so restoring the substance of the religion would lead
to legislative and jurisdiction results different from what was
prevailing in the first era of Islam. Other reasons of backwardness
include the long rule of autocratic regimes in the Arab and Islamic
countries.
Ameen
explained that unfortunately the religion was overwhelmed by bad manners
inherited from other nations, which followed Islam but maintained their
old illusions. The most important factor behind perpetuating those bad
manners was the autocratic regimes in our countries. The main reason
behind wronging women is that the human being respects only the power
and is deterred only by fear. Since the woman was weak, her rights were
oppressed by the man and her personality was tread with his feet.
As a result,
the woman lived in heavy depression without any respect or opinion. She
was subjected to the man simply because he was a man. Her personality
melted in his and nothing was kept fro her but the house corners where
she was kept ignorant and lived in darkness. The man used her for his
pleasure, and treat her capriciously: sometimes enjoying himself and
sometimes throwing her to the street. He was master and she was a slave;
he had education and she had ignorance; he had intellect and she had
simplemindedness; he had light and open space and she had dimness and
prison; he made orders and she had to obey and be patient. Meanwhile,
the Sharia teachings show that the woman has been gifted with the same
brain as the man.
Ameen
challenged the idea repeated by Moslem men that women were born for the
house and their roles end at the doorstep. He said that who had such a
conviction was simply living in illusion and raising a thick veil
between himself and the reality. Ameen also denounced the idea that
women education cannot be combined with chastity. He highlighted the
interrelation between liberating the woman and liberating the whole
society: "there is interrelation between the political case and family
case. The type of government affects the household manners and the
latter affect the community. In the east, women are enslaved by men and
men are enslaved by government. Wherever women have personal freedom men
will have political freedom: the two cases are totally interrelated. A
despotic government is not expected to ensure the women's freedoms and
rights. Every time the man degrades the woman and treats her as a slave,
he is degrading himself and losing the emotion of freedom. Conversely,
in the countries where women enjoy freedom, men also enjoy the same; the
two cases are totally interrelated.
Ameen
maintained that the only reason that may prevent the Egyptian woman from
practicing sciences, literature, fine arts, trade and industry, just
like western women is her ignorance and lack of education. If she is
helped into the active society and if she makes up her mind to practice
those professions using her mental and physical strengths, she will turn
into a living and vivid soul producing not only consuming, while today
she is living as a burden on the others' production.
Women can do
all what we, men, can do; everything allowed for us should be allowed
for them; everything prohibited for us should be prohibited for them.
Unemployment, which has become so familiar with today's women, is the
biggest vice. If our women do not practice a work indoors, do not have a
profession, do not know any art, do not practice any science, the what
can they do?
Qassem Ameen
claims that the Sharia does not have a ruling imposing the Hijab, the
latter being just a habit we inherited from certain nations. Women
living in the Egyptian and Arab countryside and handling the same jobs
as men, like in Europe, have less inclination toward corruption than the
urban women wearing the Hijab. The Arabs picked up the Hijab from
certain nations and then they liked it and exaggerated using it by
lending it a religious dimension, while the religion has nothing to do
with Hijab.
The Hijab is
a social not a religious attitude, and every era has its own attire.
Ameen wondered why we do not ask men to cover their faces when meeting
women now that they fear seduction. Is the male will more fragile than
the women's? He explained that putting a veil is not an Islamic practice
whether for worship or for decency reasons; it is rather a pre-Islamic
custom which survived after the advent of Islam.
Qassem Ameen
called for social relations between men and women to raise the latter's
awareness and enable them to get acquainted with social issues. He
thought such relations would lead to such situation where "men do not
move anything inside women". He criticized the religious people who
turned the marriage into a contract where the man owns the woman. He was
astonished at the level of degradation women might fall into if we apply
the opinion of religious jurists. He explained that marriage is a good
thing based on friendliness and mercy between the couple, while those
jurists have turned it into a tool for pleasure. He preached for giving
the woman the right to choose her husband, and considered polygamy as
heavy contempt towards women because we can never find a single woman
who agrees that another woman might share her husband with her exactly
as we can never find a single man who agrees that another man might
share his wife' love with him. Any refined and knowledgeable man cannot
endure the burden created by marrying two women not to say three or
four. The best a man can do is to choose one woman. Marrying a second
wife can never be justified unless an absolute necessity such as
sterility or chronic disease (and even the latter is not recommended
because men usually ask women to care for them when they are ill). Amen
declared that no one in the future would regret the elimination of
polygamy.
He explained
that divorce was prohibited by nature and justified only upon necessity.
It is the ugliest legitimate thing for God. The rule is prohibition
unless a necessity, so if it happens without a reason, it will be
stupidity, idiocy and mere ungratefulness. Ameen adopted the ideas of
Sheikh Mohamed Abdo regarding divorce.
This has
been an overview of the most important ideas of the enlightened
intellectuals with Islamic background. Those ideas look as compromise,
but given their context, they were undoubtedly a revolution and a pilot
initiative aimed at providing women with some of their rights and one
step in a long route where our countries are still passing without
reaching the end.
The rhetoric
of those intellectuals was based on the necessity to refer to the right
Islamic rules and to the Qur'an while refuting the backward opinions of
their time toward women. They denounced the isolation imposed on women
at home, polygamy for whatever reason and the argument that gives men
the last word in divorce issues and considers that polygamy as well as
divorce are governed only by the man's desire. They called for women
participation in public life and allowing them to work and meet with
men. The most significant in this regard is Qassem Ameen's equation
which linked injustice against women to injustice in the society as a
whole as a result of the autocratic governments, thus raising the women'
cause from private to public framework and putting it in the right
context as a political, economic and social cause related to the level
of development and general conditions in the society.
However,
the rhetoric of those renaissance intellectuals did reach the level of
demanding full equality between man and woman, the right of woman to be
responsible for her own property and interests. They did not call for
abolishing polygamy and gave the woman the right to request divorce
under several limitations not as a principle. Their ideas did not tackle
such problems as guardianship and heir considering the Qur'an rules on
heir were absolute and could never be interpreted or changed (no
independent judgment in matters covered by Qur'anic text).
Meanwhile,
we should admit that calling for full equality between man and woman at
that time was impossible for two reasons:
-
The
reference authority for those intellectuals was the Qur'an and
Sunnah, and both Qur'an and Sunnah did not state such full equality.
The Arab renaissance thinkers could not venture wide interpretation
[of the wholly texts] to promote full equality.
-
The
values of that time would not enable them to get convicted of full
equality nor request more than what they did: how could they ask for
full equality in a society fully denying the women's rights?
However, the
ideas of the renaissance figures had great impact on the process of
women liberation. They shook the social convictions, triggered
innovative opinions, encouraged certain social and political group to
put the woman's cause on top of their agenda and paved the way to
establishing the women associations who launched a liberation process
since the early 1900s.
Chapter
IX
Woman's
rhetoric in the early 20th century
I found
around ten interpretations of Hijab-related Koranic Ayays in which no
narration conforms with the other as if each narrator wants by his
narration to advocate what he sees, and I did not come across a
supported or substantiated narration.
Nazira Zein
Eddin
The Arab
Woman will occupy her real position in society and those who
misinterpreted the Holy Koran will be defeated
Aysha Abdul
Rahman (Bint Al Shatei [daughter of the beach])
Arab country
has a women's movement in the 19th century buy there were
certain women who worked in the field of literature, journalism and
culture. These women tried individually via writing to speak about the
need to educate and cultivate women and encourage them to involve in the
field of literature and some social issues. Their rhetoric afterwards
developed partially as they tackled some issues of importance to women
such as relieve women from Hijab and mixing with men but their rhetoric
did not have the woman's cause as a primary target and a main concern
and did not advocated equality or even quasi equality. Their rhetoric
was almost restricted to some ideas which aimed to open the door for
women's education, cultivation and sympathy.
Aysha
Taimour (1840-1902) was one of the pioneer women who published literary
newspaper articles in the 19th century. She wrote poetry and
had her own collection of poems, in addition of wearing no Hijab at
those early times.
She
sympathized in her writings with women to a considerable extent without
adopting the woman's cause in itself. Likewise did Mariana Marrash
(1848-1919) wrote literary articles in Al Jinan, Lisan Al Haal and other
Syrian newspapers and magazines (Syrian means Syrian and Lebanese
currently). She advocated female education, enlightenment and writing,
given the fact that she was the first Syrian to write in the newspapers.
The number of educated and enlightened women was on the increase since
the beginning of the 20th century, especially after the
opening of female schools expanded and many educated women graduated.
This expansion, the growth and development of the Arab bourgeoisie and
the spread of enlightening and progressive ideas all paved the way for
the birth of a women's movement which formed an important trend and the
buds of an active women's movement which advocates women's causes and
takes part in national work and social and cultural development was
blooming.
Women's
demands in the early 20th century were most and their
rhetoric was reformational in nature which advocates sympathy with women
and female education and did not even the reach the propounding of
Qassem Ameen. However, the pioneers of women's movement were not able to
radically tackle the woman's cause due to the nature of things at the
time and the non existence of a women's movement with a social or legal
power. This is was also due to the small number of women who can
contribute to such movement or assume an individual role as pioneers who
can give lectures and be active in all fields of life for the sake of
the woman's cause.
Malak Hafni
Naseef
was one of the pioneers of the 20th century. She worked in
the field of education and utilized her profession to spread woman's
awareness and advocate female writing and literature. She later on
discovered the need to develop her rhetoric toward the woman's cause and
attach more importance to it so she wrote two books about women the
first entitled Nisaiaat "women's issues" and the second entitled Women's
Rights. However, the issues tackled in the two books did not match what
Qassem Ameen tackled (the reason may be the burdens created by working
in the field of literature on the one hand and her comfortable social
status on the other, which distracted her from full commitment to the
woman's cause and prevented her from making that cause her No 1
concern).
Labiba
Hashem
had women's concerns in her mind right from the start so she was
involved in journalism and in 1906 she published Fatat Al Shark (girl of
the East) Magazine in which she focused on the woman's cause and female
cultivation and other women's related issues. She wrote several books in
the fields of cultivation and ethics and she contributed in spreading
some degree of awareness of female education, especially after she took
over the position of inspector of Syrian female schools, and after she
went back from Chili she resumed issuing Fatat Al Shark Magazine.
Nabawia
Mousa (1890-1951) was an educator then the chief teacher in Egypt's
public schools and finally a school inspector (the first Egyptian woman
to occupy that position). She bitterly criticized the female education
curricula because they do not give females their rights and do not
contribute in their revival and liberation. She also criticized the
Minister of Education for the same reasons and was dismissed from her
job. Later on she established private female schools in Cairo and
Alexandria and wrote a book entitled "Women and Work" in which she
demanded opening the labor market for women and advocate women's
employment.
In 1908 and
after a lengthy debate the Egyptian State Consultative Council did not
decide on the proposals presented to it concerning developing female
education. So a woman called Rahma Sarrouf confronted the Council and
reproached its members (for neglecting a vital topic affecting the
advancement of nations and the victory of one nation over another. She
called for not restricting the attention to only educating the girl's
mind and developing and strengthening her body in order to give birth to
health children in the future. She asked the people concerned to
introduce physical education and household management into female school
curricula).
Aysha Abdul
Rahman (Bint Al Shatei "daughter of the sea shore") gave a more serious
content to womwn's rhetoric and she demanded that women should be
liberated from household slavery because it is an enormous evil. And in
order not to be accused of being faithless and irreligious by women's
enemies, she demonstrated that Islam is not guilty concerning the
current status of women and she considered that the control of Ottoman
rule and reactionary forces in the Arab societies during the past
centuries laid the foundation to make Islam looks as being against
female education and against women's participation in social issues. She
believed that The Arab woman will occupy her real position in society as
it was the case during the Islamic Period and that those who
misinterpreted the Holy Koran will be defeated.
She wrote a book about women such as "The Muslim Woman Yesterday and
Today", "Islam and the Freeing of Women" and "Divorce and its Effects in
Society".
Huda Shirawi
(1879-1947) is one of the most important Egyptian and Arab women's
movement pioneers and leaders during the first half of the 20th
century. In fact Huda Shirawi represented two trends at the same time;
the first is the emerging woman's trend and the second is the growing
Egyptian bourgeoisie ideas (the Egyptian bourgeoisie was beginning to
assume political power in Egypt at the time). Huda Shirawi was from a
rich family, the daughter of a legislative council member, wife of a
legislative council member and one of the leaders of the 1919 Revolution
(Ali Basha Shirawi). This helped Huda Shirawi to be outspoken about her
opinions and provided her with appropriate climate to establish an
Egyptian women's movement, which she assumed the leadership of, and took
the lead in demanding the freeing of women. Huda Shirawi was amongst the
first Egyptian women to take off her Hijab and walk unveiled and the
woman's cause was clear in her mind from an early age. She got an
opportunity to prove the importance of women's role in public life when
she managed to organize women's demonstrations to support the Egyptian
Revolution. These demonstrations were the first of their kind in the
modern Arab history in which women marched in the streets of Cairo and
presented memos to foreign embassies containing political demands. By
this approach Huda Shirawi consolidated a political and social role for
women via which women can play a key role and managed to convince
society the new woman has new missions just like men and that her
isolation, covering by Hijab and lack of employment and participation in
public life is unjust to her and a violation of her rights.
After the
1919 Egyptian Revolution, Saad Zaghlul refrained from including any
woman in the new Parliamentary Board, as Huda Shirawi and Ester Wasef
(the wife of Waisa Wasef, who was one of the leaders of the Wafd Party)
demanded. This move prompted Huda Shirawi to secede from the leadership
of the Wafd Party and form a woman's organization separate from the Wafd
called "the Women's Union Society in 1923.
This union began to play a political role in addition to its social one
and this was manifested in opposing the 1936 Treaty signed by Mustafa
Nahhas and issuing the "Egyptian Woman" Magazine. The Union
simultaneously embarked on establishing women's societies and soon the
door was open to stage women's demonstrations. In 1939 Dr. Durriah
Shafiq established the "Nile's Daughter" Union and this was followed in
1942 by the craetion of another women's organization by Fatima Naeem.
Women's organizations became part of the Egyptian society and one of its
establishments. These organizations had the courage to demand gender
equality, the inclusion of women in labor unions, equal employment
opportunities. They also demanded the other rights such as prohibiting
of polygamy, restricting divorce and banning of Hijab. The slogans of
these organizations however did not exceed the ceiling of these demands
and did not reach the level of equal inheritance or giving women the
right of guardianship for example. This stand was evident when Huda
Shirawi debated Salamah Mousa once and opposed his demand to have equal
inheritance rights by saying "Since the topic of woman's share in
inheritance is not included in the Women's Union programs I am not in a
position to interfere in this topic and I will neither endorse the
current legal status nor modify it; I don’t agree the opinion of
Professor Salamah concerning modifying the share of women in
inheritance".
The Egyptian
women's movement was not alone in the Arab World but was the most
powerful and comprehensive. Many women's movements rose in many Mashrek
as well as Magreb countries starting the early 20th century.
In Tunisia
two Tunisian women; Manwia Al-Wartani and Habiba Al-Minshari, were the
leaders of an enlightening women's movement in Tunisia in the 1920s.
Manwia
Al-Wartani entered a lecture entitled (with or against women in Magreb
and Mashrek countries) unveiled and called for the removal of Hijab.
Habiba Al-Minshari also lectured against Hijab and soon after the
Women's Islamic Union was founded by several Tunisian women headed by
Bashira Murad (daughter of Sheikh Al Islam Mohammed Saleh Bin Murad).
One of the goals of this union was educating, culturing and cultivating
women to good wives and mothers
In Syria
many pioneer women demanded the education, culturing and cultivation of
women on modern bases and called for the removal of Hijab. They also
criticized polygamy, arbitrary divorce and home isolation and some of
these women were writers, poets, authors and journalists and some of
them launched women's newspapers and magazines.
Mary Ajami
was on of the pioneers of the Syrian women's movement and contributed in
establishing many women's associations in Syria. She launched Al Arous
(the bride) Magazine in 1910 in Damascus in which she tackled many
women's issues and attached special importance to family and children
issues. Mary Ajami did not restrict herself to Journalism and literature
but sought to establish many women's associations such as the Women's
Literary Club, Noor Al Faihaa (Damascus Light) Society, The Women's
Cultural League and other. She delivered many lectured condemning the
Ottoman occupation and then the French occupation and undertook to
deepen national feeling and was on of the pioneers in the field of
social and intellectual liberation.
Adila Beiham
Al-Jazayri
on the other hand took part in the political struggle against the
Ottomans and she and her friends protected many people from the Ottoman
gibbets (as told Dr. Ahmad Qadri Al-Turjman) and established many
women's associations, for political reasons in the first stage and then
for cultural and social reasons, such as the Arab Young Woman's
Awakening Association, the Damascene Young Woman's Awakening Society and
the Literature Lofty Tree Association. In 1933 Adila Beiham Al-Jazayri
established the Arab Syrian Women's Union which comprised twenty women's
organizations.
In the 1920s
in Lebanon Nazira Zein Eddin was one of the first Muslim women who
demanded women's rights and female education and culturing to raise
females to perfection. She believed that the structure of the distinct
and useful man can only be built via freedom in the school of the world
otherwise this structure will be deficient and harmful.
Nazira Zein
Eddin wrote a book entitled "Unveiling and Hijab" and confronted the
protests of Islamic religious leaders who accused her of atheism
(despite the fact that she is the daughter of Sheik and Islamic Judge
Saeed Zein Eddin) and organized demonstrations against her.
Nazira Zein
Eddin believed that women have the right to be involved in public
governance and be part of Islamic Jurisprudence in terms of
interpretation.
She said: "I found around ten interpretations of Hijab-related Koranic
Ayays in which no narration conforms with the other as if each narrator
wants by his narration to advocate what he sees, and I did not come
across a supported or substantiated narration".
She wrote a book entitled "The Young Woman and Sheiks" about
jurisprudence, in addition to her "Unveiling and Hijab".
It is noted
that although the demands of pioneer women and women's movements in the
first half of the 20th century were modest they were also
firm, rising and constantly expanding and deepening. These demands did
not reach the level of calling for full gender equality and did not
attach the woman's cause with the social cause but the goals were
educating women, removing Hijab, giving women the right to work and
struggling against polygamy.
It is noted
also that most pioneer women were from the bourgeoisie class which was
on the rise in the Arab World or were women who adopted the bourgeoisie
rhetoric and ideas and all of them were in one way or another close to
the political parties which represented this emerging class.
Chapter X
From
Bourgeoisie to Muslim Brotherhood
"It is
meaningless to give women election, voting, unveiling and education
rights while their share of inheritance is only half the men's share"
Salameh
Mousa
"Saying
that favoring men to women in inheritance is not just, is blasphemy in
the Creator of skies and earth"
Sheik Salah
Abu Ismael
"In our
country, there's nothing called 'women's liberation issue' after being
liberated by Islam"
Dr. Mustafa
Al-Siba'i
"Women's
going out for work is a catastrophe that necessity may allow"
Sayyed Qutub
At the
beginning of the 20th century, intellectuals of the emerging
bourgeoisie in many Arab countries received the women's liberation
banner from the Arab liberal intellectuals who held it in the 19th
century. Salameh Mousa might be a developer of Farah Anton's thoughts
and rhetoric; Abdul Rahaman Al-Shahbander, the renovator of Ahmad Fares
Al-Shidyaq's thoughts; and At-taher Al-Haddad, Kheir Eddin Al-Tounisi's
grandson and the heir of his thoughts; and so on….
Bourgeoisie
in the Arab countries played a role in releasing women and untied their
imprisonment; it put women at the beginning of liberation way,
particularly when it started to take part in or hold power, as Al-Wafd
Party in Egypt, the National Bloc, the National Party and the People's
Party in Syria did, in addition of course to the Lebanese bourgeoisie.
Those parties encouraged girl schools, urged women's education,
contributed to the creation of women's associations, issued legislations
allowing women's work and new personal status laws that gave women some
of their rights, and gave women voting rights under certain terms, which
was the beginning of women's political rights. In general, those laws
were very advanced compared with the Ottoman laws. In the light of that
and influenced by the socio-economic development, women started to
learn, put their veils aside, establish women's associations and clubs
and participate in the public life. That was helped by the early
creations of pan-Arab and socialist parties.
Salameh
Mousa
was one of the most prominent people who called for women's liberation
at the beginning of the 20th century. His rhetoric, in this
regard, was clear and frank, with secular background. He called for
taking after the Europeans completely and for considering Egypt part of
Europe. He thought that while most of our men were Western in mind and
way of living, most of our women were still living like the Indian and
Chinese women, veiled and limited to cooking and cleaning.
He considered that solving women's problem will be through equalising
men and women, where economy is the basis of that equality. "It is
meaningless to give women election, voting, unveiling and education
rights, but their share of inheritance is only half men's share. We must
separate religion from state, and make women completely equal to men in
inheritance."
Thus, Salameh Mousa was the first one to develop an attitude to women
exceeding the thoughts of Qassem Ameen, the first one to link women's
liberation to economic liberation (Farah Anton had mentioned that), and
the first one to call for revising the inheritance-related legislations.
Many Egyptian intellectuals, who called for adopting and taking after
the European development, shared Salameh Mousa his opinions.
Al-Hilal
magazine (owned by Emil & Shukri Zidan) contributed effectively to
introducing women's issue and changing the attitude to it. It opened its
pages for dialogue among intellectuals and thinkers on this issue,
starting from the idea that civilization does not rise by one wing; it
needs two strong equivalent wings: men and women. No sustainable
progress is hoped for one of the humanity's two parts without the other;
they should cooperate and work together. Modern sociology states that
the mystery of peoples' progress is their family living.
Like the
Egyptian bourgeois authors and intellectuals who held the women's
liberation banner from different attitudes and whose addresses had
different approximations to the complete equality demand, bourgeois
intellectuals in other Arab countries contributed at different levels to
defending women's rights and working for women's equality.
In Syria,
women's issue occupied a big place on newspapers' and magazines' pages
since the early 1930s. Many intellectuals defended women's rights in
their articles and called for women's equality, and debates went on
between veil advocates and unveiling advocates. Abdul Rahaman
Al-Shahbander criticized "the inferior situation occupied by women in
society" confirming that "if we want to estimate the degree of freedom
one people achieved, we have to look at the freedom enjoyed by its
women, which means that the amount of freedom women get out of the
previous slavery in any society is the most accurate measure of the
society's freedom."
He thought that "women's influence increases and women's power becomes
stronger by the increased civilization, so that this power is the
indicator of civilization's progress."
He, also, said that "half the society is based on women, and perhaps it
is the most important half as it has direct contact to children, the men
of future. It will be a nonsense to try to rise with our half is
paralyzed, or to ask for organising our home, while women are in extreme
ignorance with almost no difference from the women of the Middle Ages,
put aside this external ornament and elegant etiquette."
Later on, Nazih Mo'ayad Al-Azem, advocated women and called for women
support, and women's education like men. He called all intellectuals and
authors to support him by writing in this topic to enlighten the public
opinion. He thought that the woman, who shakes the cradle with her right
hand, shakes the world with the left one.
In Tunisia,
in the 1930s, At-Taher Al-Haddad wrote his book "Our Women in Sharia and
Society" which stirred a tornado and aroused clergymen's indignation
against him, though he was Al-Zaitouneh University graduate. He wrote in
his book: "It is our duty now, more than ever, to raise women out of
their misstep remaining from the darkness of old ages, to consider women
alive members and equal partners in life as much as their abilities,
which grow by culture and education, allow, and to remove from their
ways the rule of force used with them now. This can be ensured only
through the establishment of a court that considers divorce-related
issues, reasons of marriage disputes and marriage issue, which is
enacted today by Islamic Orient governments (he obviously means Egypt
and Syria) leading their peoples to life and freedom."
At-Taher Al-Haddad claims were realised only in 1965 by the issuance of
the Personal Status Law in Tunisia by the next generation.
In Iraq, the
following poetic verses of the poet Jamil Sudki Al-Zahawi show the
overall approach of that period's intellectuals regarding women's issue:
Women and
men are equal in competence, educate women, they are the title of
civilization.
In another
poem he said:
Women
deserve being honored, they are stars indicating peace
Without
women civilization would not have been shaped; peoples are distinguished
by the advancement of their women
Maarouf
Al-Rasafi said in a poem:
If people
stopped being sordid, women would not be veiled
We veiled
them not go after high levels, so they lived torn in ignorance.
He, also,
said:
Do the
Eastern know that their life will rise if they educate and cultivate
their daughters;
and if
they give them their rights not controlling them and teach them science
and literature?
The East
will not rise unless women become close to men
If you
pretend that the men of the East are progressing, women regress will
deny your pretence
How can a
sick with hemi-paralysis stand up while half of his body is paralyzed?
* * *
Intellectuals with Islamic background regressed clearly in the early 20th
century compared with what Qassem Ameen introduced at the end of the 19th
century. They changed their rhetoric which became more conservative and
cautious taking some of the fundamental rhetoric' content. Sheik Ali
Abdul Razek, author of the Islam and Principles of Governance,
which was considered a defiance of the traditional and fundamental
rhetoric and a call for separation between religion and state and
because of which he was fired from Al-Azhar and from his job, made no
progress regarding women's issue compared with the enlightened Islamists
of the late 19th century such as Mohamed Abdo and Qassem Ameen; he even
did not reach what they had reached of comprehensiveness and depth. He
showed only some interest in women's issue calling for their education
agreed on women unfailing with reservation. In an interview with Al-Hilal,
he said that he agreed on women unveiling without any hesitation seeing
nothing in Islam against that, but added: "but I prefer that unveiling
has strict moral restraints as was the case with English women before
the War (World War I), I think that exaggeration in unveiling which is
the case of the Americans is better than fluctuating unveiling and, of
course, better than the veil.
Sheik Ali Abdul Razek, however, did not make women's issue one of his
big concerns and main fights, perhaps because his fight for the
separation between religion and state was more important than any other
one.
Dr. Mansour
Fahmi responded to Salameh Mousa regarding women's inheritance saying
that women's inheritance at Muslims was of no importance (!) as it was a
detail that did not hinder reaching any kind of civilizations. And that
some Eastern laws gave women the right to dispose of their properties
without equality in inheritance. Mustafa Sadek Al-Rafe'i warned that the
Western civilization used women as means to soften the natures and
sharpen the talents, and what women have of humor, fun, courtship and
temptation, and what this hide of natures and ethics. This would give
the civilized world a feature of femininity that would change, when
rooted in it, to a feature of debauchery including the whole world.
The retreat
of the intellectuals with Islamic background in the first quarter of the
20th century from the opinions of their predecessors of the
19th century's renaissance people would have been easy if the
Islamic Currents' opinion in the second quarter of the century kept as
it had been in the firs one. Those Currents became more extreme against
women's issue with beginning of the 1930s, referring to Imam Al-Ghazali,
Ibn Taymiyyeh and other Muslim faqihs, who were frank enemies of women
and women's rights ignoring even the instructions of the Qur'an and the
Sunnah, rejecting the socioeconomic development and facts, and calling
for the termination of jurisprudence considering that the predecessors'
jurisprudence is sufficient and almost sacred for them, even some
jurisprudence predecessors became in a frame of holiness, so that every
jurisprudence became heresy, and every heresy a misbeleif, and every
misbeleif in hell. It became even worst when most of those intellectuals
joined a political current, the Muslim Brotherhood, and religious
instructions, and theological interpretations and legislations would be
issued by virtue of orders that could not be discussed or reviewed and
their religious and ethical legitimacy can't be questioned. Since the
1930s, the bourgeoisie won and became in power in many Arab countries,
where it applied its women-related ideas responding to development, to
the society's changing socioeconomic structure, to its theorists'
thoughts and to the society's needs in general. This played a role to a
certain extent in women's release and unveiling, the spread of girl
schools, the increased number of literate women, and the establishment
of tens of women's associations within each country. Women started to
take part in society's life through their work factories and state
agencies and institutions. Home isolation and inferior look at women
became disagreeable. This perhaps led to a reaction at the Islamic
currents, which, instead of making jurisprudence to develop their
predecessors' thoughts, stuck to the predecessors and hallowed them,
adding to them what they had not said and taking extreme attitudes of
women's issue trying to stop the wheel of history and drive women back
to isolation. Those currents' theorist twisted the Koranic verses by
their crocked interpretations and selective speeches neglecting the
religion's essence and integrity. Worst of all, they started to
politicize religion subjecting it to politics requirements and
manipulations. In brief, they tried to drive women back to the darkness
of their imprisonment and ties of their houses; and they are still
trying tirelessly until now.
Those
Islamic currents gave themselves the right and legitimacy to represent
Islam, be its spokesmen, construe its verses and interpret its
instructions, depriving the rest of Muslims of exegesis and
interpretation right if it opposes them. They changed, or almost
changed, Islam to some phrases taken out of their contexts, to lots of
speeches on women as if the Islam's real mission was to imprison women,
to force the Muslims to pray and fast and to punish wine-drinkers and
that is all. Islam, however, is a comprehensive attitude of universe and
life before being instructions and guidelines. At the same time they are
trying to imprison women, they pretend that Islam has freed women, but
they fail to convince anyone of any of the two issues. Oddly enough,
some of them have studied and got high degrees in different fields of
science, so that they are scholars in their fields, but when they talk
about women's issue, they lose their methodology, logic and style to
become orators in masses of low culture instead of being exegetes,
interpreters with scientific approaches and contemporary knowledge
tools.
Those
religious currents, particularly the Muslims Brotherhood, depended on
the opinions of Imam Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali and Ibn Taymiyyeh as the
references of their opinions and attitudes, neglecting to big extent the
Koran and Sunnah, as the opinions of those two fakihs suited their
stereotyped attitudes of women and served their goal of re-imposing hard
constraints on women. What do Al-Ghazali and Ibn Taymiyyeh say?
Hojat
el-Islam Imam Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali
considers that marriage is a kind of slavery; a woman is her husband's
slave, so she has to obey him unlimitedly in everything of herself
unless it is a sin. He adds that women's craftiness is great; their evil
is common; they are usually of bad moralities and imprudent; they can't
be corrected but by a kind of kindness mixed with tending; a mat at the
corner of the house is better than a barren woman; women have ten
private parts: husbands veil one of them upon marriage and the grave
veils the rest after death.
Sheik-al-Islam Ahmad Ibn Taymiyyeh
considers that husbands have the right to satisfy their desires of women
whenever they want unless they hurt them or prevent them from doing
their duties; thus women should enable their husbands to do that not
leaving their homes but upon men's and legislator's permission. Once, he
was asked about a woman who used to fast during the day and to spend the
night praying, and whenever her husbands called her to his bed, she
would reject; his answer was that she did have the right to do that,
according to Muslims' consensus; she should obey her husband when he
calls her to bed. He considers that the Moukhala'a (kind of divorce)
mentioned in the Koran and Sunna happens when the wife dislikes her
husband and wants to depart him, in this case she gives him the dower,
or part of it, to ransom herself, same as a war prisoner ransoms
himself.
What a
reference this is? What a predecessor they glorify? And what fatwas they
take as their supreme ideals?
Sheik Hassan
Al-Banna, the General Spiritual Leader of the Muslims Brotherhood,
decided that the twisted part of women was their minds and the straight
part was their hearts (what wisdom is this in the 20th
century?), thus any dealing with them should be on a basis of tending
and leniency not on logic and philosophy. Their erudite, Sayyed Qutub
(God's mercy upon him), assures that men are superior (?) and that when
Islam states men's superiority (when has Islam stated that?), it makes
it on biological bases (Sayyed Qutub tries here to adopt the notion of a
Western philosophical current which tried to justify injustice to women
by biology, as if women's issue is a biological one. But if it is a
biological one, why don't consider that women are superior to men who
can't bear an | 
