veiled4allah

remembering Muslim women of the past, helping Muslim women of today

A couple different things to suit your taste for International Women's Day. First, links to some resources on Muslim women in history. Second, positive developments in Bangladesh as 5,000 men rallied against violence on women. Specifically, the men repudiated acid attacks on women, an unfortunately common form of violence in Bangladesh.

another new frontier

Via A Dervish's Du'a, an account of a woman officiating at a Muslim marriage:

I knew, from my academic specialization in Islamic marriage law, that there was no legal obstacle to my officiating at the marriage. The role of imam at a wedding is ceremonial rather than sacerdotal; as in Judaism, it is the words of bride and groom (or their representatives) that make the marriage. The presence of an officiant, while recommended and customary, is not religiously necessary for the marriage to be valid. And, as there is no formal ordination of clergy in Sunni Islam, any learned person can deliver the wedding sermon and oversee the vows. In the United States, more often than not, it is the imam of a local mosque who officiates. But many of my male Muslim colleagues are regularly called upon to perform marriages; having a professor rather than a shaykh lead the ceremony would not be unusual. Still, a number of these colleagues have, in addition to academic credentials, some semblance of traditional Islamic learning. Having never had the benefit of such study, I have always been very careful to give analytical, rather than normative, opinions when asked about controversial issues pertaining to women, marriage, and the family. But here I was, being asked to step into the role of imam precisely in order to reshape the paradigm of Islamic religious authority, for this was the bride-to-be's expressed intention in seeking a woman to officiate. Quite honestly, the idea was terrifying. So I agreed to consider it. I was not alone in considering new things; the summer of 2004 was a crucial moment for shifting religio-cultural norms about gender boundaries and female authority in Muslim communal life in the United States. Hadia Mubarak was elected the first female president of the national Muslim Students' Association, after years in which numerous campus chapters have had female leaders. Sharida Hussein, a Muslim woman and army officer, was seeking appointment as a military chaplain, raising issues of who is qualified to wield religious authority as well as who is authorized to bestow it. Sex-segregation within mosques was being debated everywhere (with the vast majority of critics of the status quo accepting the separation of men and women for prayer, but objecting to the inferiority and inadequacy of the spaces allocated to women). And, only a few days after my phone conversation, a group of Muslim women calling themselves Daughters of Hajar held a woman-led, mixed-gender prayer before joining the communal Friday service at the local mosque in Morgantown, West Virginia. In each of these instances, something important was being negotiated. How much can or should historical practice shift to reflect contemporary realities? What is essential and what can be modified to suit new sensibilities? And, always, who has the legitimacy to determine the answers to these questions?

As with the question of blood money, it's good to take a look at what is actually a requirement of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) and what is traditional or cultural.

recognizing the equal worth of a woman's life

Interesting:

Prominent Muslim scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi pressed for gender equality on the amount of manslaughter blood money. Qaradawi said during a forum in Qatar's Supreme Council for Family Affairs on Wednesday, December 22, that there is no evidence backing that the compensation paid for mistakenly killing a woman should be half that for a slaughtered man. "No evidence in the Noble Qur'an supports such arguments on discrimination drawn between men and women in that regard." The prominent Muslim scholar, who is also head of the International Association of Muslim Scholars (IAMS), said earlier generations of scholars such as Ibn Alia and Al-Aasam used to pay equal blood money to compensate the families of those killed regardless of their gender... ...Sheikh Qaradawi's call was welcomed by a host of prominent scholars attending the forum. Chief among them are Qatari participants Sheikh Abdul Kadir bin Muhammad al-Amari, the former deputy chief of the Appeal Court, professor Aisha al-Mannaa, the dean of the Shari`ah faculty of Qatar University, and her colleague professor Mohamed Othman Shber. Al-Mannaa said review of women's share of bloody money would be seen as an effort to promote women rights. Shber concurred, saying these days are completely different from earlier eras when opinions on women's blood money share were given. Salem Rashid al-Marrekhi, member of the national human rights committee in Qatar, hailed the scholars' stance on equalizing women's share of blood money as a boost of human rights in the Islamic world. "Human rights laws don't strike a difference between between males and females."

It's good to see prominent scholars willing to re-examine these issues and what the Shari'a really calls for.

Saudatu Mahdi, one of the women of the year

One of Ms Magazine's women of the year (see also this press release) is Saudatu Mahdi, a women's rights activist from Nigeria. Her biggest claim to fame is helping to secure the acquittal of Amina Lawal. Saudatu believes that justice can be obtained by working within the Islamic legal system rather than by abandoning it:

"Even though the Nigerian women would like to tell the world that yes the pressure assisted Amina and them, we on the ground insisted on using the legal interpretations of Sharia to acquit Amina," says Saudatu Shehu Mahdi. Mahdi is the Secretary General and member of the Board of Trustees to Women's Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative (WRAPA). His organisation championed the 'free Amina campaign'. She argues that since Sharia will not evaporate from Nigeria's social and political realm, there was need to deal with Amina's case within the Sharia framework. "This to us was a better approach which we could use to build case laws within the Sharia and help other Aminas who might find themselves in the same situation than succumbing to the international pressure or any other international instrument,"

Elsewhere:

Mahdi believes that Nigerians should develop their own home grown solutions to complex political and legal issues such as Lawal's case. The importance of the Lawal case, she adds, is that it subjected the people to the full tenets of Muslim law;the final judgement set a precedence for other states and will impact on future judgements in similar cases;and, it provides an opportunity to develop the human rights appreciation within the Sharia law itself.

My previous blog entries on the Amina Lawal case are: Should Amina Lawal be put to death? Real Islamic law says NO and Amina Lawal's victory (see also the comments on that entry)

sisters are doing it for themselves

Congratulations to Hanadi Hindi, Saudi Arabia's first licensed woman pilot. Hindi says, "Women are very capable of taking on any job previously monopolised by men". You go, girl!

a novel idea: let Muslim women make their own choice

A simple concept, yet some people seem to have trouble with it:

Shirin Ebadi, the first Muslim woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, said wearing a headscarf should be left to the discretion of Muslim women... ..."I believe women shouldn't be forced to wear chador (scarf) or any other kind of hejab (scarf). At the same time, I believe they shouldn't be forced to remove it from their heads. This is Muslim women's choice," she told a Tokyo news conference.

She has more good things to say too.

a positive step

Via A Dervish's Du'a:

The rare sound of a woman's voice at the microphone caught everyone's attention; even young children stopped playing and looked up to see who was talking. Up at the front of the United Muslim Association mosque yesterday, a confident Maryam Mirza delivered part of the Eid al-Fitr sermon. In doing so, she marked the end of Ramadan (the month of fasting) and what many called a new beginning for Muslim women as she took on a role traditionally left to men. "For our survival in this world, humans must change with the times or we'll be left behind," the 20-year-old Markham woman told the 200 people at the service. "The same concept can be applied to religion. Muslim brothers and sisters, we must all help Islam move forward, and I believe we are doing just that." Mirza looked at the silent crowd from behind the microphone and continued: "I want to thank our leaders for making changes outside of the norm. We must continue to educate ourselves and initiate change in our community and in our religion. This is all possible while still staying within the teaching of the holy Qur'an."

As reported by the Toronto Star.

the woman who would be president of Afghanistan

The San Francisco Chronicle profiles Masooda Jalal, a Afghani woman who is running for president in the upcoming elections in her country:

Many of the women appear to be moved by her appeal. "We want someone who can help people," says Asefah, a 40-year-old mother of five daughters. "We want a good future for our children. Because she is a woman, she can understand the problems of women." Jalal is not considered likely to win, but she has already beat the odds against women's advancement. Fewer than 20 percent of Afghanistan's women can read and write, and young women in rural regions are still denied education. Her activism began shortly after she graduated from Kabul University's medical school, she said in an interview in her office, a dim apartment on the east side of Kabul built in the 1980s, during the Soviet occupation. She saw her patients suffering from social and economic conditions she could not solve as a doctor, and despite vehement objections from her parents, brothers and sisters -- mostly well-to-do professionals who live outside Afghanistan -- she turned to politics. "In the beginning, they couldn't digest it," she says. "They were worried. They were annoyed that I did not have a party or money or military support." Her goals are simple. "I want my people to be healthy and happy," she says. "I want my government to be responsive and democratic."

a Muslim woman athlete, and hijab

The BBC profiles Nassim Hassanpour, a nineteen year old woman who is a member of Iran's Olympic sporting team and the only woman on Iran's Olympic team.

Nineteen-year-old Nassim Hassanpour concentrates hard on the target in front of her. Her arm is still and her grip on the air pistol is steady. She fires and the bullet passes through the middle of the target. Her face remains impassive as she reloads. In the weeks running up to the Games, Ms Hassanpour was working on her skills for more than six hours a day. The burden on her shoulders was huge. Not only is she the only Iranian female taking part in the Olympics, she is also the youngest competitor on the team. "Because I am representing Iranian women I feel special. I just want to deserve to be there and to achieve a good result. If I do, it might inspire other Iranian women," she says. Her coach Javad Kuhpayezadeh says she has the qualities of a future star. "Marksmen and women have to be able to have good levels of concentration, otherwise they cannot be successful. They also have to be physically fit and self confident," the coach explains. "She has all these qualities. She is also a gymnast so her body is well trained. We have high hopes for her at the next Games in China in 2008."

Most of the article deals with the difficulties faced by Iran women pursuing athletic careers. As a female golfer quoted in the article notes, you can't deny that that the Islamic dress (headscarf and long coat) gets in the way of athletic participation. Iran has been taking steps to develop events like the Islamic Games, which are closed to male spectators so that the women athletes can wear normal sporting attire. I see two different issues here. First, Iran requires all Muslim women to wear the hijab in public whether they want to or not. I've addressed the question of such laws before (follow the links in that entry for more) so I won't go over it again here though I hope you'll take the time to read what I've written in the past. The second issue is women who voluntarily choose to veil. A lot of non-Muslims seem to have a hard time understanding or accepting that women can or would voluntarily choose to observe modest dress, even though we are supposed to be a society that respects people's freedom of choice. I've even encountered people who seem to feel that my choice of dress is somehow an aggressive action against them or a threat. At times, the West seems almost obsessively focused on the hijab as the symbol of Islam and it seems to favor a very narrow view of what the choice of hijab means for the woman who chooses it. I sincerely believe that the hijab is a religious commandment within Islam and I feel that women who are committed to following the rules of Islam in their lives should seek to the best of their ability to wear hijab. To me, this is similar to my belief that prayer and fasting are religious commandments within Islam and that Muslims who are committed to following these rules should seek to the best of their ability to undertake the religiously-obligatory prayers and fasts. Living life according to these rules may mean giving up some things that we may want to do. In reality, a lot of life in the real world involves making compromises and giving up on some things we want to do in order to meet obligations that we have taken upon ourselves. I'm not particularly athletic (in fact, I'm a bit of a klutz) so giving up sports is not a hardship for me, but there are other changes that I've made in my life to accommodate the hijab and other religious obligations. I believe that what I can gain in the world and in the Hereafter through my religious observance is greater than what I am giving up and that someone who gives up something when it is difficult for her to do so, for the sake of God, will be rewarded by Him. I wish that more people were willing to take an open-minded look at the issue instead of trying to impose their own ideas and values on Muslim women.

Bahraini women in solidarity

The Gulf Daily News reports on the efforts of Bahraini women to form a union:

A call went out to officials to speed up the establishment of the Bahrain Women's Union. The union's preparatory committee first applied to the Labour and Social Affairs Ministry to grant it permission to establish the organisation in 2001. It renewed its application in January and is still waiting, said committee head Mariam Al Rowaie. "We have been waiting three years for approval. We currently have 12 societies under our umbrella and we expect more soon," she said. A union will give women in Bahrain a unified voice in dealing with the government as well as regional and international organisations. "There are many issues that need to be addressed including laws regarding women's rights and the elimination of discrimination in both the public and private sector," explained Ms Al Rowaie. "For example, we hardly ever find women in very high positions. They are usually concentrated in middle-level management, even though their abilities are equal and often exceed those of men. "We don't have a woman minister yet, with the exception of Supreme Council for Women secretary-general Lulwa Al Awadhi, who has the rank of minister but not a minister's portfolio." Ms Al Rowaie said a union will also help prepare women for roles in politics, including potential membership in the parliament and municipal councils. "We need to activate women so that they can play their rightful role in society."

See also a previous entry on labor unions in Bahrain.