Islamic Feminism: Oxymoron or reality?
Barcelona conference 2006

In early November of 2006, the present day modern, cosmopolitan city of Barcelona, with its parallel Andalusian character, exuding undeniable cross-culture vibrancy, buzzed with the intellectual powwow of "Islamic Feminism".

The Congress of Islamic Feminism was founded as a movement by the Islamic Board of Catalan. The Islamic Board of Catalan is the Spanish federation of Islamic institutions. It was born out of the need to have a unified organisation which could look into matters of import facing the Muslim community in Spain and also in the world at large. Its main aim is to adopt a significant social approach, which it deems, will promote better social behaviour. It vows to struggle against the biases and misconceptions plaguing Islam. It nurtures a multi-cultural and multi-religious approach to promote a peaceful understanding of Islam, so vital for the lifeline of humanitarian values to be kept intact.

The Congress of Islamic Feminism called together voices from all over the globe to express solidarity with its cause the first time last year. The resounding success that it encountered after its first congregation led to the second one now in November in an expected course of many successive ones to follow. The organizers candidly admitted not having envisioned such a snowball effect in its popularity. The phenomenal response that it received just goes to show the intensity of its need and relevance today. The head of the Islamic Board opined, "The denial of women’s rights leads to the necessity of Islamic feminism. Islamic feminism is a movement within the framework of Islam."

The multi-cultural voice of Islam was represented by an equal diversity of ethno-cultural representation in the form of speakers at this forum. From the Americas in the West to Indonesia in the East, the cream of academics in the field of Islamic issues, came together to deliver, debate, and analyze related theories and practice in the greatest and widest of perspectives. The only driving need to do this in the words of Naeem Jeenah, a South African scholar and human rights activist, is "Why do we do Islamic Feminism? We do it for Allah. For many of us it is not just an academic struggle; it is for the sake of the suffering of fellow-Muslims. People want Islamic answers."

The tarnishing of Islam’s image the world over that took on an unprecedented dimension with 9/11 has brought Muslims face to face with the bogey of Islamic extremism. The topic of Islam is no longer confined to personal reflection; it has entered into the political and universal public arena. The character and very nature of Islam is at risk of vilification and negative speculation. Now is the time for the legitimate sons and daughters of the Islamic soil to defend the honor and integrity of their beautiful tradition which the Source gifted to mankind as a "mercy and healing", exemplified by the one [p.b.u.h] "who came to perfect good behaviour." A tradition that stemmed from the Divine seed of Love, Compassion, Generosity and Forbearance, steeped in noble ethics and high morality, today being held synonymous with words like terrorism and barbarism, is a profound internal betrayal. What is this cancer, this abnormal distortion, that is deforming the beautiful and gentle face of our religion? We, the Ummah, the collective spiritual body of Islam, must face some home-truths in order to embark upon the necessary intellectual and spiritual crusade to vindicate the true Islamic position.

These very home-truths were laid bare before the audience of this conference. The dialogue between Islamism and feminism highlights what Islam and its Identity are in truth. The re-blossoming and revivalism of the true Islamic identity entails a re-evaluation and analysis of Islamic law, its interpretation and implementation. Islamic terrorism is a contradiction in itself, for if it is terrorism, then it cannot be Islamic. Islam is literally and symbolically nothing but "peace". The "maqasid-e-shariah" or the goal of Islamic revelatory law is strictly nothing other than "masalaha" or welfare. When something goes against the welfare of the individual, society or humanity it cannot find validation in the Islamic framework. The word "Shariah" comes from the Arabic word "sharh" which means a clear and open track or path. It came to be applied metaphorically to the clear and obvious path which leads to God, or in other words, the law which God revealed as guidance to mankind. From the Quranic reference the shariah of the Quran is a set of ethical and normative principles which define a just and morally preserved society. The shariah of Islam, as we know it today, is a body of legal rulings of the medieval ages. The classical Islamic books on jurisprudence authored by the Muslim jurists in the 9th, 10th and 11th centuries are the sources of Islamic law as practiced and applied in the Muslim world today. The closure of the gates of Ijtehad or individual, self-exerted, analytical reasoning, recommended as a source of law-making and interpretation by the Prophet Muhammad [p.b.u.h], is the greatest tragedy that beset the Muslim world. This step, time-froze and era-bound a religion that was meant to be dynamic, evolutionary and universal. The hermeneutic approach of the classical Muslim jurists who codified Islamic law was itself coloured by the indigenous socio-cultural and customary trends of their times and regions. The differences of their multi-cultural application and practice of the shariah converted it into a complex and diversified juristic leviathan. In later eras, the destruction of traditional Islamic societies at the hands of colonialism led to the rise of fundamentalist movements which thought that the only course of vindication was to revert to the seventh century Muslim state and society in Arabia, by strictly rigid emulation of its behaviour and character. Abdenur , the Spanish founder of the congress said, "Going back to religion is not necessarily negative, but the attempts of using Divine validation to perpetuate discriminatory laws is totally unfounded in the Quran and so absolutely redundant."
"Analytical reading of the Quran on the whole proves that it does not in anyway support patriarchal or male chauvinistic control", he continued. He declared that what was being denied by the progressive Muslims was the patriarchal reading of the Quranic text and never the text itself. Re-reading the Quranic text in a non-gender biased way would open the Muslims and the rest of the world up to a new dimension of our tradition. The Quran explains the concept of "Nafsan Wahidah", the single soul from which sprang forth the creation of both man and woman. All human beings have the same spiritual quality. This takes us back to the cosmic image of creation. Creation is born of polarities. A proper balance of the masculine and feminine energies is the desired goal of Islam.
Even from the Sufi perspective, ethical behavior translates into equilibrium. The Sufi path is about the voluntary return of man to God, by the adoption of the Divine character traits derived from the Asma-ul-Husna [the beautiful names of God] that exemplify model moral and virtuous behavior. The perfect equilibrium of the names is actualized by the perfect assumption of every trait in the form of which human beings were created. This is the human representation of the "meezan" or the balance of Law.

According to Margot Badran, an American-Egyptian historian of Middle-Eastern and Islamic societies, in Islam men and women share equal rights and responsibilities. They are both equally charged with "Khilafah" i.e vicegrancy, and equally urged to struggle in "Taqwah" or piety. Each individual owes ultimate obedience only to God. The Quran recognises biological difference but it does not define gender-roles. There is a mutual sharing of the conjugal pair. The term used for spouse in the Quran is "zawj" which simply means companion without designating a gender. The Quran is specifically gender-free. There is a mutual sharing of the conjugal pair. Certain practices were curtailed and condoned in the Quran, for instance, polygamy and slavery. This was done to facilitate the people to move on the path of Shariah. What was condoned was not meant to be prescribed. This was the process of gradualism introduced in the Quranic revelation which has not been allowed to progress. Complementarity is grounded in nature itself. "Khilafah" and "Tawheed" are two fundamental concepts of Islamic thought which cannot be undercut.
We need a consciousness that goes beyond these polarities.

The Tunisian professor of Islamic Fiqh, Amal Grami, said, "Social psychology and economic traditions have affected female oppressive laws in the Muslim world."

Dissecting the Juristic methodology within the Islamic world, Shaheen Sardar Ali, a professor of Islamic Law, said "Though the Quran remained the source of inspiration, but politicized law-makers made the laws. This became enshrined in the legal principle of "siyaasa shariah", the politics of Law. The government and the State took on the job of law-making. The Quran talks of the unjust people who falsely slander to have their witness or evidence cancelled forever as to never be accepted again. According to Islamic law they are to be subjected to 80 lashings. The intention of this law is to protect the reputation of women against misplaced suspicion and undue prying into personal affairs for the sake of scandal-mongering. The revelation of this Quranic verse followed the famous "incident of the necklace" in which Hazrat Ayesha Siddiqa the honourable wife of the Holy Prophet [p.b.u.h] was left behind by the caravan as she had been distracted by the search for her lost necklace. The man responsible for the guard of the caravan’s rear found her alone in the desert and accompanied her to rejoin with the rest of the caravan. People started slandering and maligning her honourable reputation to the great dismay of the Holy Prophet and her. Soon Allah revealed these verses as an answer to the vicious tongue-wagging of the slanderers. No single Muslim country’s law, however, reflects this regulation today. The Quranic text stands far apart from the law projected by the so-called custodians of Islamic Law today. The study of case law in Pakistan prior to 1979 shows only 70 women prisoners in the whole of Pakistan. Post-implementation of the Hudood Ordinance, in a survey of 2003, there are a recorded 7000 women prisoners. Most of the women have been imprisoned on the charge of "zina" which according to the Hudood Ordinance does not distinguish between "zina" adultery or fornication, and "zina bil jabr" rape. In most cases the raped victim is the one rotting in jail. The oppressed is the one continually being subjected to further oppression." While Islam is the religion that says, "The oppressor and the one who tolerates oppression are both unjust."

A call for the abolition of discriminatory laws is a must for rescuing Islam from the clutches of radical extremism. Margot Badran reiterated that the ground has to be cleared conceptually and intellectually. This is an Islamic revival in one way and a transformation in another. It is revival in the sense that it is a return of Islam to its Book and thus a revival and retrieval of what it truly is. It is a transformation in the sense that what has been "passed" as Islam needs to be transformed into an Islam based on the Quranic message of gender equality and social justice.

In stressing the relevance of justice in Islam, Naeem Jeenah, said "We need to develop a contemporary relationship with the Quran. What does it say to us today? Justice is the important pillar of the Quran, which is the key. Justice is the purpose of religion. "Qist", the Arabic word for equity or justice, is the pillar upon which heavens and earth stand. Justice should thus form the premises of all hermeneutic and interpretive methodologies. Fazlur Rahman talks about the Quran not as a Book of principles or law but rather as a compilation of contextual responses to contextual questions. We need to receive the Quranic references as answers to questions we are facing in the contemporary world."
One must study the historical context of the revelation, the "asbab al nuzul" that influences its import. We need to generalize those specific answers in order to make them relevant to the new context."

Shaykha Amina Al Jerrahi, a spiritual leader of the Jerrahi Sufi Order, expressed the pressing need to generate an awareness of all the interpretive distortions of the Quran; to bring forth the ideological struggles of the Muslim world. "It is important to rescue Islam from the authoritarian interpretations that became institutionalized with time. When we come to the question of making women an absent phenomena in Muslim societies, by curtailing and controlling their social and public interaction and presence, it becomes spiritually frustrating to understand how a holy tradition of such sublime wisdom as Islam can be reduced to the size and form of the woman’s veil! This religious reductionism is not founded in Islam. The term used for mankind in the Quran is "Ya Ayyuhan Naas", "O Mankind" and the term "Insaan" from "Naas" is non-generic. Insaan has the responsibility before God with or without the support of men. Each one is responsible for his or her own spirituality and physiology. The human has to enter into the experience of the Asma ul Husna. Religious extremists and secular humanists stand behind false pretences. We need to cleanse our spirits of all socio-cultural and political distortions. Islam has that all open and inclusive framework which holds all the previous prophets and revelations within it. This is the mark of the Muhammadan era, the era of the final revelation", said Shaykha Amina al Jerrahi.

To sum up one could say that male chauvinism is a hegemonic trend at work in different spheres and levels of human life. It does not have a valid place in a system or society which may be truly Islamic, for Islam is essentially a religion of equity, justice, egalitarianism and fair-play. Wherever and whenever there is an element of oppression, opportunistic exploitation and biased judgment based on principles other than "Taqwah" or moral piety, we enter the sphere of Dar-ul Kufr and exit from the sanctified boundaries of Dar-ul Imaan.

Written by Naila Amat-un-Nur. The author is a Sufi Salika [a student on the sufi path] and writer/researcher of spirituality and current Islamic issues.

14.11.2006