Western Conceptions of Muslim Women
Praise be to Allah, the Lord of All the Worlds. May Allah’s peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muhammad, the Seal of the Prophets, and upon his family and Companions.
If a woman was portrayed in the following manner: for example, born and raised in England and lives with her family just outside London. She drives a Ford station wagon, leads a local Girls football team, shops at the Selfridges and just attended her 20-year high school reunion.
From this brief description of this young woman, the readers may have formed a particular picture of her in their minds. If they were told that this young woman wears a head scarf in keeping with her Muslim faith, that picture might take a drastic turn.
She is a Muslim. An image of a suppressed, meek, black-enshrouded woman is submitting to the demands of their dominating husband, races through some readers’ minds. However, why is this the case? Would we see this young woman any differently if she were a Christian or Jew? The answer is probably no, but since she is a Muslim woman, it is difficult not to have some preconceptions of her.
I don’t understand why, in the West, Muslim women are clumped into one large group and viewed as homogenous clones of one another, while their Christian and Jewish counterparts are rarely ever stereotyped in this way. Many people don’t realise, due largely to biased media interpretations, that there are a large variety of Muslim women around the world, from areas such as the Middle East, South Asia, South East Asia, Yugoslavia, Northern Africa, and the Southern parts of the former USSR, just as there are Christian and Jewish women in various countries. For instance, one probably would not classify a Mexican woman with a French woman, though both may be Roman Catholics and hold the same beliefs. In the same way, a British Muslim woman is different from Pakistani Muslims, who are different from Saudi Muslims. In these three countries, women are accorded different rights and privileges because of the government and customs in the area. For example, many British Muslim women are discriminated against because they cover their heads; Pakistani women have political rights but are often exploited by men; Saudi women have no public role, yet they are “protected” by Saudi men.
The negative stereotypes of Muslim women probably arise from this varying treatment of the female gender. The Western media, for some reason, latch on to a few examples of unjust behavior in the Islamic world, brand Islam as a backward and “fundamentalist” religion, especially in its treatment of women, and ignore that it was the first religion to accord women equal rights. While Christian and Jewish women were still considered inferior, the originators of sin, and the property of their husbands, Muslim women were being given shares in inheritance, were allowed to choose or refuse prospective husbands, and were considered equal to men in the eyes of God. However, through time, slowly changing customs, and the rise of male-dominated, patriarchal nation-states, Muslim governments began placing restrictions on women which had no grounds in the Quran or the hadith, the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad. On the other hand, Christian and Jewish women in the West have slowly been awarded rights not called for in the biblical tradition.
Traditionally, Judeo-Christian women were thought to be inferior to men and were given a low status in society. These negative attitudes toward women arose because Judaism and Christianity placed such a heavy emphasis on Eve’s role in the expulsion from Paradise. Because Eve, rather than Adam, was the first to be seduced by Satan and eat fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, she supposedly caused the fall of mankind. Therefore, all women, as the descendants of Eve, were thought to be evil and morally weaker than men. Early church fathers made statements such as, “Do you know that you are each an Eve?. . . You are the Devil’s gateway. . . .You destroyed so easily God’s image. On account of your desert even the Son of God had to die. In Christianity, women carried the extra burden of causing the death of Christ, as the Christians church fathers point out. As you are probably aware Christians believe Adam and Eve passed on their sin to all future generations, Jesus had to purge humankind from this “original sin” by sacrificing his life. Thus, by causing the fall of man, Eve also caused the death of Christ.
In the Jewish tradition, women receive no less harsh treatment. Because of Eve, all women have to face punishment on Earth including pregnancy, pain in childbirth, menstruation, and subjugation to men. Orthodox Jewish males still recite in their daily prayers: “Blessed be God King of the Universe that Thou has not made me a woman . . . . Praised be God that he has not created me woman” (Menahot 43b)
Often, the discrimination against females began immediately upon birth since baby girls were thought to be shameful, a view found several times in the Bible: “The birth of a daughter is a loss” (Ecclesiasticus 22:3). Jewish rabbis also expressed displeasure at the birth of a female, saying that boys brought peace into the world, whereas girls brought absolutely nothing.
Additionally, women are portrayed in the bible quite consistently as appendages of men; as possessions of men; as goods which may be sold, disposed of, given away, traded, or just ordered about by men.
As Vern Bullough, author of Subordinate Sex, explains, “Adultery was not a sin against morality, but a trespass against the husband’s property” (Schmidt 118). Since the wife was the husband’s property, she could not be violated without his permission. This view of adultery changed with the advent of Christianity, when Jesus introduced the idea that adultery could be committed against a woman also, but later many of the church’s theologians “reverted to the patriarchal understanding of adultery” (Schmidt 122). In present-day Israel, however, the old law still pertains. A married man can have an affair with an unmarried woman and have children that are considered legitimate. If a married woman, on the other hand, has an extramarital affair, her children “are considered bastards and are forbidden to marry any other Jews except converts and other bastards” for ten consecutive generations.
Christian practices also often ignored women’s rights in cases of divorce. In original Christianity, divorce was expressly forbidden, and Jesus supposedly said that “anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery” (Matthew 5:32). This harsh view failed to take into account the possible incompatibility of a man and woman and condemned unhappy couples to stay together against their will. This situation was especially difficult for women because society did not allow them extramarital relations but condoned the relations of married men with prostitutes and other single women. In Judaism, divorce was allowed and even encouraged at times. Early Jewish scholars disagreed over the reasons a man could divorce his wife, some said, that a man should not divorce his wife unless he has found her guilty of some sexual misconduct, some said, he may divorce her even if she has merely spoiled a dish for him. Some say, he may divorce her even if he simply finds another woman more beautiful than she. However now the Jewish law says Jewish men can divorce their wives for any reason whatsoever.
Suffering such blatant discrimination, it seems amazing that most Christian and Jewish women have overcome the odds and achieved equal rights with males. However, this has been a fairly recent development, largely occurring in this century. Within the past hundred years, women began to be considered citizens of states, were given voting rights, property rights, and easier access to divorce. Now many Muslim women hold the former position of Christian women, but generally all they receive from the latter is scorn, derision, misunderstanding, or pity. It is ironic that the religion which significantly improved the status of women as compared to both Judaism and Christianity, and indeed was the first religion to grant women equal rights in all areas of life, including religion, sexuality, inheritance, and law, is now regarded as one that oppresses women.
One of the basic principles of Islam is justice for all humans and equality in the eyes of God. Women are considered no less than men in aspects of religion and are not denigrated anywhere in the Quran. First, in the Qur’anic Creation story, Eve is not mentioned as being seduced by the Serpent and taking the first bite of forbidden fruit. Rather, it says: “by deceit he [Satan] brought them to their fall: when they tasted the tree their shame became manifest to them (7:19:23). Both Eve and Adam were held equally responsible. Hence, women in Islam do not bear the stigma as the daughters of a sinful Eve nor are they to be blamed for corrupting innocence. Nor were women created as inferior to men, or solely for pleasure as the Judeo-Christian scriptures sometimes implied. Here, in very blatant terms, it is stated that women and men are made from the same soul, and therefore, how could one gender possibly be inferior? In fact, neither gender is inferior, as the Quran states: “And their Lord answered them: Truly I will never cause to be lost the work of any of you, Be you a male or female, you are members of one another” (3:195).
This concept of gender equality in Islam begins immediately upon birth. When baby girls were born in Pre-Islamic Arabia, they were often buried alive to prevent shaming the tribe or family. In response to this infanticide, the Quran forbade treating a female child as disgraceful and states that both baby boys and girls are equally a blessing from God: “To Allah belongs the domination of the heavens and the earth. He creates what He wills. He bestows female children to whomever He wills and bestows male children to whomever He wills” (42:49). Prophet Muhammad even guaranteed Paradise to those fathers who bring up their daughters with “benevolent treatment” and also encouraged both males and females to pursue knowledge and education (Bukhari, Muslim).
Furthermore, in Islam girls are not considered the property of their fathers and have complete control over their sexuality, in contrast to the Judeo-Christian tradition. A free woman can never be sold it would be repulsive for a father to sell his daughter as a concubine nor can she be married against her wishes, or the marriage can be annulled. After the marriage, a woman does not become the possession of her husband and is supposed to retain her own name and identity. Additionally, Islam does not imply that a woman is made entirely for the pleasure of her husband but refers to spouses as equal partners: “They are your garments and you are their garments,” the function of garments being to protect, cover, and adorn (2:187). Today, Western media often convey the idea that Muslim women are completely submissive to their husbands, but in fact, even the wives of the Prophet Muhammad [peace and blessings of Allah be upon him] used to fight with him if they did not get their way; they were far from the submissive, meek stereotypes of Muslim women today.
Another area in which Muslim women had greater rights than those of Judeo-Christian women is property. In an Islamic marriage, rather than paying the husband a dowry, the wife receives a substantial gift from him which then remains under her control, not his or her family’s, even if she is later divorced. Any other property a woman may happen to own at the time of the marriage is also exclusively hers and the husband has no right to use it. Even if she earns her own income, it is the husband’s responsibility to maintain her and the children, and she has no obligation whatsoever to provide for the family. Furthermore, a woman in Islam can inherit money or property from any one of her relations, including her husband.
In the early years of Islam, a woman’s rights were also protected concerning sexuality and divorce; a double standard did not exist between males and females. According to Islam, both genders are supposed to remain chaste until marriage, not just the women, and adultery consists of any married person engaging in sexual intercourse with someone other than a spouse. The punishment for both men and women who commit adultery, if the actual act is witnessed by four other people, is death by stoning. If a husband arbitrarily accuses his wife of being unfaithful, they both take an oath upon God, and if the wife swears that she is innocent and the husband swears that she is not, the marriage is irrevocably over and the woman is not considered an adulteress. However, throwing loose accusations around about any woman is highly discouraged in Islam. A woman’s dignity should not be toyed with and one should not, under any circumstances, speculate about her sexual conduct without very secure evidence. The Quran sets forth a very harsh punishment for those people who do: “Those who defame chaste women and do not bring four witnesses should be punished with eighty lashes, and their testimony should not be accepted afterwards, for they are profligates (24:4).
A similarly just attitude prevails in cases of divorce. First, divorce is not at all encouraged in Islam but allowed under compelling circumstances, which both men and women are allowed to obtain. The Prophet said [peace and blessings of Allah be upon him] that “among all the permitted acts, divorce is the most hateful to God” (Abu Dawud).
Couples are told in the Quran to live with one another in kindness: “Live with them on a footing of kindness and equity. If you dislike them it may be that you dislike something in which Allah has placed a great deal of good” (4:19). In the hadith, this view is reiterated: “The believers who show the most perfect faith are those who have the best character and the best of you are those who are best to their wives (Tirmidhi). However, in some cases, divorce is inescapable, and Islam attempts to make it as amicable as possible.
The last approach I will mention which Islam uses to protect women is the Hijab, or the veil. This is ironic because Western media often portray the Muslim veil as a suppressive force in a woman’s life. Every Muslim woman is required to wear a scarf or some sort of head-covering and loose-fitting, modest attire. This is not a means of controlling a woman’s sexuality or suppressing her but rather, is used to protect her. It is hoped that by dressing this way she will not be seen as a mere sex symbol but will be appreciated for her mind. Furthermore, it will not subject her to unwanted sexual advances or harassment. It is interesting to note that the head-covering for women is not an Islamic innovation but was practiced by Judeo-Christian women centuries earlier, and yet is scoffed at by the West today.
Hence, Islam in its original state gave women privileges and imposed no harsh restrictions or double standards upon them. However, with the progression of time, the rights of Muslim women began deteriorating, and today, very few Muslim countries adhere to the Islamic ideal in their treatment of women.
The last thing Muslim women need to add to their problems at this point is more problems. Rather, the solution for achieving true freedom, independence, and happiness must come from within from the teachings of the Prophet, from the depths of the Quran, and from the wealth of rich Islamic tradition.
Wal Hamdu Lillahi Rabbil ‘Alamin
By Sister Umm Habiba