Islam feminists urge gender jihad

[abdulhakeem]

Last Updated: Friday, 28 October 2005, 15:54 GMT 16:54 UK
By Danny Wood
BBC News, Madrid

Organisers of the first international congress on Islamic feminism are calling for a "gender jihad".

Organiser Abdennur Prado Pavon says the struggle for gender equality in Islamic countries involves refuting chauvinist interpretations of Muslim teachings.

The congress is being held in Spain, organisers say, because they want their message to reach the growing number of Muslim women in Europe.

Around 300 delegates are looking at women's rights in the Islamic world.

Mr Prado, of the Catalan Islamic board, believes a common misconception in the West is that women's liberation is not possible in Muslim societies.

Activists representing the Islamic feminist movement are in Barcelona to counter that view and discuss ways of achieving female equality in an Islamic context.

Collaboration

Among the delegates is the Pakistani feminist Riffat Hassan, regarded as one of the pioneers of Islamic feminist theology.

Also here are representatives from the international association, Islamic Feminism.

Islamic Feminism argues that the inferior legal and social status of women in Muslim countries is a result of misogynistic distortions of the teachings in the Koran.

Organisers say they want more collaboration with western feminists but say non-Muslim feminists need to challenge their anti-Islamic stereotypes.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4384512.stm

[abdulhakeem]

Gender jihad

Barcelona, 26 september 2005
by Abdennur Prado
Secretary of Catalonian Islamic Board

Bismil-lâhi ar-Rahmani ar-Rahim
As salamu aleykum
We call "gender jihad" to the struggle against male chauvinistic, homophobic or sexist readings of the sacred texts in the Islamic framework. Throughout the 20 th century an extensive movement in favour of the overcoming of patriarchal readings developed, carried out in its majority by women demanding equal rights in their capacity as Muslim women. This movement has the peculiarity of having arisen spontaneously and in parallel in numerous countries with a Muslim majority. Its origin can usually be found in the first decades of the 20 th century in Egypt, when some Egyptian feminists posed the majority of the questions which are still being debated today.

Despite the progress to date, at the start of the 21 st century the gender question continues to be one of the pending issues in societies with a Muslim majority. It is almost a Gordian knot, around which a conservative reading of the religion is established, a reading which discriminates, restricts individual liberties and tends to perpetuate hierarchical power structures which exclude the majority of the citizens.

Today there is an extensive theoretical debate about ?ĺIslamic feminism?Ĺ which includes arguments about the appropriateness or not of this term. Feminism, as the struggle for women's liberation, cannot be labelled. The qualifier ?ĺIslamic?Ĺ cannot be defining of a type of feminism distinct from Western feminism, but rather is a way of placing in context the problem of liberation in relation to Islam. In no way should it be a ?ĺlimiting?Ĺ qualifier, in the sense of reducing the value of the basic claim to female equality. Despite the terminology, the fact is that there is a broad movement that, by confronting the male chauvinistic, homophobic or sexist interpretations that dominate in many areas of the Islamic world, can be called truly feminist .

Overcoming the patriarchy

There are those that take for granted that Islam oppresses women and that this cannot be changed by any means. From this perspective, westernisation, understood as the renunciation of Islam, is the only path to the liberation of the Muslim woman. Opposing this reading, there is a women's movement that claims that it is possible to achieve liberation within the framework of Islam. For the most part these are women who do not want to give up their traditions and reject the male chauvinism and sexism that prevail in Muslim societies.

This movement considers that a degradation of Islamic tradition and distortion of the sacred texts has taken place. Moreover, this movement affirms that true Islam contains important elements of liberation and calls for the recovery of those elements as a framework for social emancipation.

Discrimination against women has gone from being thought of as an essential part of Islam to being condemned as a distortion of tradition. Women's liberation cannot be achieved by attacking Islam as a whole, but rather by attacking those who uphold the subordination of women, destroying their arguments and offering Muslim women the elements necessary for their liberation.

A new understanding of the Islamic phenomenon is needed in order to assess this movement's significance. It involves an attempt to recover the spiritual dimension and the feeling of belonging in the world in the face of those who seek to reduce Islam to an ideology. A understanding based on the concepts of complementarity, justice and balance, an rooted in The Message of Qur'án.

Islam, as a cosmic view that provides for the integration of all forces that govern life, does not mean the subordination of women to men. In the indivisible cosmos, all the forces of nature are found integrated, in constant movement in equilibrium. Within this view, the equilibrium between the two poles of a couple (the masculine and feminine forces) is a determining factor. Masculine and feminine do not correspond to man and woman, but rather are an internal part of every creature. That which is feminine is in equilibrium with that which is masculine just as much in a man as in a woman. To try to limit that which is feminine to women and subordinate it to that which is masculine as being the exclusive essence of men is to upset the internal equilibrium of men and women, a polarity which is present in all creatures.

The patriarchy upsets this equilibrium established by Allah in nature, fostering a society based on oppression and authority. Male chauvinism is the destruction of Islam as a well-balanced way of life. It breaks with the very order of creation and imposes an artificial order which we call the patriarchy. It's necesary to be said that the ideological foundations of the patriarchy are not found in the Qur'án or the Sunna. A renewed reading of the sacred texts is needed in order to expose the inconsistencies in the male chauvinist reading of the tradition. So we consider that islamic feminist is not only a political or social movement, but an spiritual restoration of the Message of Qur'án.

The dichotomy of the Muslim woman
In relation to those countries which are experiencing a large growth in Muslim immigration, Islamic feminism could constitute an effective part of their integration. It deals with an attack on the very roots of discrimination and injustice. An attack, based on the sources of Islam, which refutes the totalitarian reading impossed as the only one and true version of Islam.

Opposing this internal criticism (deconstruction of the patriarchy based on the sources of Islam), we consider that Western culture's claim to superiority is not an effective adversary against fundamentalism, as this attack fails in his objective and tends to inflame even further these opposing stances. The more aggressive the pro-westernisation stance is and the more it relies on arguments based on a fear of Islam, the more strength is gained by the fundamentalist movements that present themselves as defenders of their religion in the face of these attacks ?ĺfrom outside?Ĺ.

Nor are attempts at ?ĺsocial engineering?Ĺ effective, such as that of Kemal Ataturk, put in practice in Turkey ?Ĭ banning the veil, closing the sufi associations, substituting the Arabic alphabet for the Latin alphabet, repressing all public expression of religious acts, etc. The failure of this policy could not be more spectacular. The social engineering and spread of anti-religious secularism carried out has not achieved its aim. In fact, Turkey has gone from being a region characterised by syncretism, the mixing of cultures and religious pluralism, to be a country in which traditional Islam is threatened by political Islam (Islamism).

In the face of the westernisation/Islamism dichotomy we offer the recovery of and giving of priority to the numerous elements of traditional Islam that are compatible with a democratic system and human rights.

Islamic feminism is having a powerful influence in some countries and it is not an isolated matter but rather involves the lives of millions of people. It is crucial for the positive development of Islam and the overcoming of fundamentalist readings that this movement is made known and supported on an international level. It is a common error in the West to continuously point to the dark side of Islam and ignore those Muslims that face up to this.

In the fight against discrimination, we ought to unite our efforts and go beyond cultural or religious barriers, these being barriers that the very fundamentalists seek to establish as immovable. To go beyond these barriers is the task of all those who desire a globalisation that respects diversity and that does not become the hegemonic plan of one State or part of the world over another.

Muslim immigration

In the context of modern societies, where the weight of the media is so great, it is necessary to make room for pluralistic expressions of Islam. Establishing a different view point breaks with the monolithic belief that the fundamentalists seek to introduce. It is important to offer alternatives, to make room for discussion and to facilitate the breaking of patriarchal and unilateral models.

One of the projects that the Junta Islámica Catalana ( Catalonian Islamic Board ) has set itself for the following years is to offer an Islamic interpretation of the gender question that is compatible with the modern world and constitutional values. We need this feminist reading to reach Muslim women, so that they know there is alternative to the eradication of or patriarchal readings of their traditions. We need to make known this extensive movement in favour of the recovery of women's rights in Islam.

In this, as in every task of integration of Muslims in society as a whole, the activities of one organisation alone are insufficient. Each social sector involved in the task of integration and construction of pluralism is able to provide its own platforms for action and communication in its attempt to make sure this message reaches society in general as much as it reaches the muslim population. It is a message of meeting, in which a multicultural society might have the chance to develop without loss of the freedoms so painfully gained, in an organic and sensible manner avoiding pitfalls and offering consensual solutions.

http://www.feminismeislamic.org/eng/index.htm

[abdulhakeem]

THE PATH TOWARDS ISLAMIC FEMINISM

By Yaratullah Monturiol

For more than fourteen centuries we Muslim women have had a privileged status?Ķ While Western women awakened slowly, creating a climate of social awareness, in the Islamic world we have been on the defensive arguing a complete “ethical code” of principles, taking the form of the sacred texts and traditional teachings that furnished irrefutable evidence of a great equity in the status of women and which converted her (in theory) in citizen with full rights from the Islamic perspective. In other words, no woman should suffer discrimination on the basis of gender, but neither should Muslim women according to what has been legislated by Islam for her protection.

However, the fact that she has almost never been able to count on the cooperation of her brothers in religion has delayed her reaction when it comes to problems of gender and she has directed herself towards causes that are more easily shared or shareable. For example, in recent centuries some of these women have become great fighters against colonization and today still play a great part in the resistance against cultural assimilation which the West has been attempting for some time. It has been precisely these women who have best known how to defend the so-called “Muslim identity”.

There are many influencing factors in the confusion about Islam, for example language, which is for the human being an elemental form of expression. In the first place, the term “believer” or the concept “faith” are not exactly translations but rather Christianized interpretations that are a long way, in an etymological sense, from their original meanings in Arabic. This means that we have ended up from Islam establishing parallelisms that do not correspond to our metaphysical reality, a reality which is neither conceptual nor abstract. It is practice and experience — action together with intention. In this sense, the individual is jointly responsible (caliph) for all that happens and, as an implicit part of the process, has a direct effect on it. Using this basis as a starting point, “faith” is not precisely that but rather “imân”, which is not about “belief”, but rather about the store of trust which one who acts with responsibility houses within, or rather the sensitivity with which a person is open to signs that provide him or her with knowledge and that drive him or her to reflection. Far from the short-sightedness of fatalistic obscurantism, the attitude of the mu'minat (commonly translated as “the believers”) ought to constitute a source of individual and collective growth in continuous evolution, since we are immersed in the jalq al yalid (the never ceasing creation).

Why haven't Muslim women participated in the feminist movements of Western women? Why don't they play a more active role? Unfortunately, Western feminists, as a result of a hastily made deduction which has now become established, assume that Muslim women suffer from discrimination on account of Islam. This assumption, supported by very powerful media platforms, is a standard stereotype which is difficult to argue against and for this reason Muslim women find themselves faced with a great dilemma that affects them at every level of their existence, with serious consequences for their psychological state and for their soul.

Three critical reflections on the global feminist attitude with respect to Muslim women

We should be honest and recognise that in general terms non-Muslim societies, and above all the West, blindly believe that Islam does not provide values which are able to be defended in our times, that it is an out of date system which should be abolished for the progress of all humanity given that it endangers the most fundamental human rights and even democracy?Ķ Of course women are the scapegoat in this crusade. This treatise, in spite of being recognised by international laws as an obvious instigator of fear of Islam, is not limited to being proclaimed by the more belligerent, but has also infiltrated into civil society. Faced with this “danger” from Islam seen as an enemy of the system, the type of “liberation” that is sought by the West for the Muslim woman is usually the giving up of her daily practices. In this aspect feminist movements in general are strongly opposed to permitting participation by Muslim women when they try to defend their rights as women and claim their right to ?ĺIslam?Ĺ at the same time.

Western feminists have fought courageously and with these comments I do not take away from the merit of their achievements, but firstly they have always fought from their world which is ethnocentric and culturally closed to other ideas, without the possibility of recognising Muslim women who for them are total strangers. English women have been pioneers in the feminist movement and an indispensable reference for other women, but their incursions and influence in many countries were clearly pro-colonialist. Contrary to this political leaning, the movements of non-Western women (to which, because of this, we have never referred as feminist movements), were always anti-colonialist?Ķ In this we find basic ideological and political differences which we cannot avoid. It is important to look at the context in which women move.

The second serious problem with Western feminists in relation to the difficulty in coming together and mutual collaboration in order to achieve common objectives, is in the contradictory image that they have built up of “orthodoxy” in Islam. Male chauvinist readings are usually given more credit to than any other interpretation and in order to confirm stereotypes are placed above other versions which are more favourable to the interests of women. This is another serious basic problem upon which it is important to reflect, as the diversity of Islam should not permit the dogmatic hegemony of a number of fixed attitudes which have been adopted and which prevail immovably over others, even less so when they prejudice collective interests, as many schools in our traditional Islam indeed specify. We must listen to other voices. Western society has great responsibility for endorsing criteria that are erroneously considered as the most representative of Islam, in detriment to other criteria to which a deaf ear is often turned.

Thirdly, one has to avoid Western paternalisms and understand that it is not lack of thought nor of autonomy that impedes the progress of Muslim men and women in this state of darkness. The complicity in maintaining dictatorial structures and corrupt powers in many countries with a Muslim majority and the influence and interference for diplomatic motives and of political and economic interests, attributing to Islam the cause of our misfortune is not only perversely dangerous for all but is also a negligence that we are already paying for dearly, for lack of will - political but also civic. With a greater inclination towards urgent debate and due to the mere fact of opening that door to dialogue immediate results are already being achieved.

Three critical reflections about the global attitude of Muslims women with respect to feminism

Muslim women do not escape criticism in this reflection, given that despite the fact that they are used by others as a psychological or physical weapon of war we are not going to succumb to victimization (which does not serve any purpose). It is also true that on a personal, family or community level many women do not of course live Islam in this traumatic way. I do not deny the pleasure that many of us Muslim women feel in savouring (dzauq) the fact of living as Muslim women, and this needs to be pointed out because this part of the story usually remains hidden, or when one attempts to give evidence of this perception, also real, the polemic questions are sometimes ignored. However there are three elements that contribute to stagnation.

The first is the resignation and apathy with which this situation of real discrimination is lived, as a result of the comfort that Islam itself gives. Although it may seem absurd, it has its logic. If this tradition is originally based in key principles that socially try to minimize inequalities (liberate the oppressed, legally protect the most unfortunate, eradicate sacrifices such as burying young girls alive) and women achieve citizenship with full rights (economic independence, sexual liberty — they can choose their husband, say yes or no without being able to be forced, as well as the right to divorce or to establish clauses in their contracts which stipulate the conditions that they decide, participate politically in the making of decisions, amongst other things), how can you believe what is happening? In other words, the fact that the social system that Islam has created since its beginnings is innovative and means an improvement in the status of women since so long ago has caused a conformism (also encouraged by repression and censorship) that keeps us stagnated, as if there has been nothing to resolve since then. However the reforms that were already put forward before Islam are still to be carried out. To anchor oneself in the past and consider that the way of life of women more than fourteen centuries ago is applicable in today's world, would be like giving up not only the fundamentals of Islam, but also a complete historical legacy that converted Islam in a civilization in which its cultural, artistic and scientific splendour were a great school for the entire world during centuries. Neither the memory nor the origins have to be given up (although all throughout history this has been persistently attempted and may be, among other things, one of the reasons that the said resistance to change has occurred). But one has to live in the times and adopt that caliphate that Islam proposes to us. I invite the Muslim women who are most learned in this subject to provide facts and write about and investigate this legacy, which many have dedicated themselves to hiding, because it is of utmost importance in order to put things back where they belong.

The other matter on which we need to undertake some serious self-criticism is the indifference to and lack of solidarity with which we have taken on the fact that so may thousands of women live in a situation of oppression or exploitation without saying anything. It is shameful that other women, who don't even understand what is happening to us, have to demand our rights because we, as Muslim women, do not do it ourselves. With this cowardly and hypocritical attitude we support what our Islamic principles condemn, what Muhammad (s.a.s) wanted to change, what so many (starting with Hadiya, the first person to embrace Islam without doubts and followed by an endless list of women, some exceptional but many of them normal people) have demonstrated is not the case, with their attitudes, with their acts and with their lives. It is intolerable. And with the cold-bloodedness of those who believe the misfortune that others suffer is not their problem we are capable of becoming used to and of contemplating without blushing the worst treatment, verbal or written, with words, expressions, looks, blows?Ķ in domestic behaviour, government structures, community political decisions, or even in the simple differences between two adolescent siblings educated by the same parents, depending on whether we are talking about a boy or a girl.

We cannot excuse ourselves saying that “it happens everywhere”. Yes it is true that here women die at the hands of their husbands and ex-husbands and that the figures are horrifying and outrageous, but this does not exempt us from fault for being silent accomplices. And we know that according to the hadith, justice is half of Islam. But we are suspicious when someone condemns what is happening, when a Muslim man or woman is critical and we doubt their loyalty to Islam. Wouldn't it be more logical to mistrust this self complacency that leads us to turn a blind eye to that which prejudices us as Muslims, as people?

The third reflection is about the relationship of Muslim women to each other, to other women and to feminism in particular. The term “feminism” had not been incorporated into women's movements until recently for various reasons, amongst others for lack of empathy. It was very difficult to identify with feminism without giving up the Islamic identity, as it implied a secularism that firstly is not shared by practising Muslim women and secondly this belligerent secularism itself excludes them (could there be another concept of the same term with different connotations?). Could it be that we have to resign ourselves and continue to be outcasts? In this regard, it must be recognised that twenty years ago discussion was almost impossible and now, on the other hand, although still in the minority and not very easy, a crack of light has shone through in this direction.

Where are we?

What has happened? Why are we talking today about Islamic feminism?

In the same way that Negro women have had to specifically claim this characteristic for themselves, the Muslim woman also needs to express this characteristic as a characteristic added to the fact of being a woman. Likewise, in relation to other women they need to claim their right to be different in order to be respected. We cannot now commit the same mistake as always. Our differences should not leave us isolated or cut-off. Women's networks should expand their horizons opening their doors to all women who fight to improve the situation, whatever colour, origin or faith they may be. Muslim women are mobilizing all over the world ?Ĭ some are fighting in Africa or in Asia in much more difficult circumstances than ours here and doing so in a heroic and exemplary manner. We must be attentive to what is occurring around us, responsive and showing our solidarity.

There are already many groups of women at an international level which are anti-globalization and pro-human rights, etc. As well we have inter-religious dialogue and other forms of meeting such as the Foro Social (Social Forum), at which the voices of women come together and networks of cooperation and certain involvement are established, which before we could not even imagine. Let's hope that this solidarity and coming together grows and multiplies, and above all that it generates the energy and capacity that we need in order that the courage of these women may transform our global society into a world that is less patriarchal, less male chauvinist and less bellicose. SALAM.

Yaratullah Monturiol is President of Catalan Islamic Council (Spain), the organization of the First International Congress on Islamic Feminism
(Barcelona on the 27th, 28th and 29th of October 2005.)

http://www.feminismeislamic.org/cat/yaratullah.htm

[Al-Nasser]

i smell MWU :s

[Al-Nasser]

Yaratullah is Hijabi and stylish as you can see

http://www.webislam.com/multimedia/presentacion/fotos_actuales/yaratullah_monturiol.jpg

[abdulhakeem]

i smell MWU :si just saw a link to it on that site and amena wadud is a participant of that congress too

[Al-Nasser]

Amina Wadud Leads Mixed Gender Friday Prayer in Barcelona

http://www.muslimwakeup.com/main/archives/images/wadud-smiling-300.jpg

By Ahmed Nassef

Barcelona -- One of the world’s leading experts on the Qur’an and its discourse on gender led a mixed-gender congregation in a Friday communal prayer in Barcelona, Spain yesterday.

The impromptu prayer came after Wadud, professor of Islamic Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, was invited to lead a congregation by several Muslim women during a question and answer period following a talk by Wadud at the International Congress on Islamic Feminism.

After answering a slew of questions on the historic mixed-gender prayer she led earlier this year in New York City, members of Spain’s Muslim community quickly organized a makeshift prayer in a conference room at the Alimera Hotel in Barcelona, where the Congress was being held.

About thirty worshippers participated in the prayer.

Before the prayer a minor controversy erupted about whether Spanish television cameras can record the event, with several congregants refusing to be filmed. Soon, the TV cameras were removed and the prayer began with the call to prayer followed by a short sermon by Wadud.

Ahmed Nassef is editor-in-chief of muslimwakeup.com.


http://www.muslimwakeup.com/

[GothiKa]

I hate muslimwakeup.com

[GothiKa]

Yaratullah is Hijabi and stylish as you can see

http://www.webislam.com/multimedia/presentacion/fotos_actuales/yaratullah_monturiol.jpg

At lease she is wearing the Hijab

[Salman Al-Farsi]

At lease she is wearing the Hijab

Looks like a turban to me :rolleyes:

[GothiKa]

Yeah, I was thinking about that as well.